The Awakening
by ScarlettAriandale
Summary: Former doctor for Starfleet Evelette Swan finds herself forced back into the organization's plans as she's taken to a base and handed a patient of unprecedented ability. Forced out due to her own morals, one year later her world is once again snatched from her as the very man she tried to protect comes to take advantage of her intellect and her doubt. (STID spoilers! Khan/OC)
1. Prologue

**I'll just say ahead of time, I've absolutely fallen head over heels in love with Star Trek through the new movies. Sci-Fi has a special place in my heart, and I may just have to go back and watch old Star Trek to satisfy my new craze. That said, while I may not be boldly going where _no man_ had gone before, this is place I haven't been and as such I expect I'll stumble over inaccuracies. Please feel free to let me know - eager to learn - and of course reviews are always a delight to read. Okay, enough blabber, I'll let Evelette take the wheel. Enjoy my latest work, The Awakening.**

_Station Outside Jupiter 2258, 62. _

The doors of the med bay drew back, thrusting her into the mad panic of life combating death. Everywhere people dressed in the StarFleet uniform were darting about, shouting information and grabbing tools, prepping for the incoming patient.

Evelette took a moment to steady herself, adjusting to the uncomfortable sense of stepping back into her own history. The officers behind her seemed uncertain as to if they should wait or continue forcing her forward, so she gave them no opportunity to do either, rushing forward and stripping off her jacket shouting, "I need sanitary uniform immediately."

As much as she loathed the establishment she'd just been placed in the heart of, there was a level of admiration owed to their medical staff's uncanny ability to detect and obey authority. A young man rushed forward with a white coat, the silver emblem of Starfleet glistening on the chest. She snatched it up, rushing over to the sanitation station as she rolled up the sleeves, scattering a pair of women prepping surgical equipment as she thrust her hands forward into the scanning apparatus, watching the green lines form a grid across her skin, cleansing and assessing simultaneously.

It flashed affirmative blue and she pulled her limbs out, turning to another man who had appeared with a clear pad. "M - Doctor Swan," he staggered over how to address a civilian. "Patient reports."

She snatched it from him, moving forward to the awaiting white table at the center of the storm. She began flipping through the information, ignoring the team. The information was pitifully – and shockingly – inadequate. Male. Caucasian. Height, eye color – it was all aesthetic No medical history, no details of some terrible neural injury to explain why she had been torn from her host of patients who needed her to be hourly present.

The light overhead gave a flash of red, and then the doors gapped wide and the hovering stretcher came surging inward. The man was strapped down, thrashing in what she immediately assumed was a seizure. She tossed the data pad aside and barked "Get him on the table now, on his side unless you want to drown him in his own fluids. Do you want to make it worse? Get those restrains off!"

The men she was yelling at were obviously unaccustomed to being yelled at by a lab coat. They hesitated at her command, forcing her to push the nearest one aside and begin working on the straps herself. Medical staff hurried forward to help, and she cradled the man's head as four men hoisted him off the hovering board and onto the white cushioning of the table.

She snatched a scanner from the table as her staff moved back, positioning it over the side of his head as he continued thrashing. "Watch him. If he moves to close to the side readjust him but other than that don't touch him. Now who the hell can tell me what happened to him?"

"He's suffered severe trauma."

The deep toned voice drew her gaze upward from the information flowing in on the scanner screen. His voice was enough to put every defensive mechanism in her body to work, and from across the flurrying room she locked eyes with Starfleet Admiral Alexander Marcus.

She could scream her head off, or she could help save the man's life.

Only her need to do what she could was enough to set aside the potentially all-consuming rage the admiral's presence provoked, and she tossed the scanner at the nearest assistant. "I need thirty three milligrams of Thoraxian Kistrom now! Someone tell me we have a better neural reader than the S. R. Durex that's over two years old!"

"Ma'am!" An Orion women thrust the blue vial prepped in a needle towards her.

Evelette didn't bother answering as she snatched it up. "Turn him on his back now! Where's my scanner?"

"Coming!" Wherever the answer came from her didn't bother to look as she covered the man's head with her arms while her team turned him over. She murmured a prayer then rammed the end of the injector into his neck, the liquid shooting into his system and forcing his muscles to relax. It was eerie, the sudden drop of his limbs as he went dead still.

"I need suction people!" She demanded, accepting a tube from somewhere to her right and ramming it into the man's mouth to remove excess frothing saliva. It was expanding down his throat on it's own, insuring the absorption of anything on its way up that might block his airways. That he hadn't vomited yet was surprising. "So massive trauma? He isn't bleeding and I don't see any indication of blunt force."

"Failed attempt at testing a cryogenic chamber." Marcus called.

She glanced up. "What the hell use is – never mind. Fifty CC's of Kristos, and a competent crew if we could – the gods damned scanner!"

"Ma'am!" A shockingly short woman held out the data pad sized silver box out to her. Ripping it from the woman's hands Eve positioned the device over the man's head, letting it hover of its own accord and putting her fingers to the edge of the screen, expanding it with a drawing out motion as a map of the man's brain appeared. The pulses of activity appeared as moving red lights, but there were massive dark clouds on the screen. Brain damage the likes of which she rarely saw in someone who's skull wasn't caved in, and the fact that there was any activity at all was completely illogical.

Strangely, the brain activity was all going towards the black sectors. With this much damage, the brain shouldn't have been working at all. The man should have been dead.

"How long has he been like this?" She demanded, moving aside the scanner and accepting the drug, administering it to his forearm as she swept around. He was completely still now but for the unsteady and uneven rise and fall of his chest, head turned to the side so his dark hair hung over his face.

"Less than an hour."

"It took more than that to contact and bring me out, you were expecting this kind of result?" She shot and accusing glare at Marcus as she leaned over the table, taking a light from the hand of one of the team members and hurrying up to the man's head, turning his face towards her and drawing back the lid on one of his eyes, shining in the light. The pupil constricted. She let the lid close, shoving the light into her pocket as she examined his pulse. His heart was still functioning, but the beating was all wrong. Sporadic. His current blow flow couldn't be consistent enough, he should have been going into the stages of his body shutting down.

The screens lit up with his information as a swift orange light swept over him, and his body showed up in several forms on the screen against the far wall. His skeleton, completely solid and normal. His circulatory system, the computer could read the issue with his heart, but blood flow was continuing. Lymph system, normal. Respiratory, his lungs looked like the alveoli had been over expanded and burst. His organs were all discolored, but by the second the black on them was ebbing away. His lungs were still functioning, taking in air while certain sections of tissue began quivering as blood surged through and the cells fought to recover from forced stasis. New tissue growth – his lungs were reconstructing themselves from the old useless tissue.

But the neural system, that was the truly unthinkable. As she watched, pulses of red shot through his body, soaking into the sectors where nerves were damaged beyond repair. And as they expanded, new pathways began to form not unlike a spider web construction. His system was repairing itself.

"Doctor?" The admiral called.

She blinked, aware that the room had come to a halt. They were watching her, waiting for an order. Only the machines worked absent her direction, recording information. Many were flashing red, alerting the staff to just how wrong and incomprehensible this all was.

"Hook him into intravenous." She said, less forceful than before. Her own brain was doing the unimaginable, trying to counter this with some logic. She was drawing up everything she knew on cryogenic stasis and the body's recovering from it, but the technology was archaic. "He's severely dehydrated, and practically starving."

She examined the man's face as her staff brought up a line, the two bulbous jars of fluid and the machine as they inserted the needle to his arm. His eyes were moving rapidly beneath the lids now, as if he were dreaming. She moved over to the nervous system screen, and drew up the live scan of his brain. The darkness was rapidly fading, nearly his entire brain regenerated. It was unprecedented. His body was healing itself.

And then the explosion of activity again. A violent gasp, and the man launched up. Medical staff moved back like frightened rabbits, and the security rushed forward. She could see what was about to occur – the man's hand snaking around the pastic tube who's needle he'd just torn from his arm.

"Stop this right now!" She roared, rushing forward and tossing the first this at hand at the head of one of the red shirts. He ducked under the considerably large silver scanner, and they flinched back in surprise as the doctor hurried forward, shoving back the staff and positioning herself between her patient and the man closest to the tubing. She grabbed her patient's wrist, and held her free hand out as if she could ward them off.

All eyes went to the Admiral, watching with a grim expression. He alone moved forward, broaching the edge of the meter wide space she had created between the medical bed and the crowd. "Doctor Swan, your services are no longer required. A security team will escort you to a shuttle, which will return you promptly to Earth."

"You brought me here to save him, then let me save him." She growled. Her fingers were tight around the man's wrist – his heart was flying at a rate that could suggest cardiac arrest, though his breathing was slow and deliberate behind her. "If he wasn't important you wouldn't have brought me here. You want him alive? Then get your brutes and Cretans out of my medical bay."

"He seems recovered already." Marcus said icily.

She let a small bitter smile tug at her lips. "His cells have suffered severely from being revived at a completely improper rate – returning his blood to liquid made it extremely hypotonic. You're lucky he isn't in a coma or making a lovely viscous mess on your shiny black shoes – the next few hours are going to be vital to his survival. Now you brought me here because I'm the best god damned neurologist you have alive, unless you have another also frozen that you'd like to bring back with all the delicacy of drugged primates."

Marcus almost smiled. "Good to have you back, Doctor Swan."

"I'm not." She said sharply, but she eased as he nodded and the room began to empty of medical staff.

"How many do you need?"

"Is there anyone with half a brain aboard wherever we are?"

"They just left."

"Then no."

He chuckled. "Even if they're vital to his survival?"

"Their not being here is."

"The backup stays. When he's stable, Anderson and Waylon will escort you to me, and we'll discuss how to proceed."

"Fine, so long as they don't try touching him again."

"So long as he remains civil." Marcus looked passed her to the man. He made no reply, but his heart beat was slowing under her fingers. "Take good care of him."

"I don't need you to tell me to." She breathed, eyeing the admiral as he took his leave, his military trained red shirts nodding and then forming a wall of security at the door as he exited. They all stood perfectly; still, hands on phasers at their sides and watching her patient with an eagerness she didn't like.

Taking a deep breath, she removed her hand and faced the man. His intense stare startled her slightly, though she was careful not to let it show. He had a look that cut through flesh, looking at her like this was the first time she'd ever truly been seen. But there was more there, the unpredictable look of something feral. He looked human, but basic instinct told her he was more. She tried smiling, but his face was so blank it only made her feel more uneasy. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Hello. I'm Eve – and despite this crews best attempts, I'm going to see to it you live a long and healthy life. What's your name?"

He didn't answer. He simply watched.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" She frowned.

Nothing.

"Well, you won't need this." She touched his hand, still gripping the clear hose. The needle was leaking liquid onto the floor. He opened his hand, letting her take it and set it aside, turning off the valve. "Alright, so you do understand… I guess I'll just have to call you John. How are you feeling?"

She didn't expect a response this time, picking up a hand held scanner from a tray a few feet off and walking back beside him. "Lay back please."

He didn't move.

She raised a brow, meeting those freezing blue eyes with her own emerald orbs. She put a hand on his chest, and pressed. Slowly he lay back, shifting to make himself more comfortable as she moved around to his other side, holding the scanner's clear disk up to his temple. "You've got an extraordinary brain, John. After liberation from these types of hell holes, I specialized in neurology. I've seen the brains of every species known to humanity, and I've never seen one that can fix itself like yours. I assume it's the neural impulses that is healing the rest of your body's damage, signalling stem cells. I'm going to take a blood sample, alright?"

She walked over, retrieving a needle from another tray, noting the bottles of medicine she'd demanded were still out. She grabbed one, then turning tossed it toward his hand. His eyes snapped to it, and his hand snaked out to snatch it from the air. She smiled, walking back over. "That's a good sign."

She held open her hand, and slowly he placed the small bottle into her palm. Somehow, she got the feeling he was learning from her faster than she was from him.

She set it aside, taking his arm and turning it to expose the inside of his elbow. She held the needle up to insure he saw it, then nodded to his arm. She couldn't tell if his mind was having issue with her words or if he simply was choosing not to speak, but some basic part of her told her to alert him to any pain she might be causing.

He made no indication of pain as the needle shot into his arm when she pressed the circle of the actual device to his skin, and she watched the red fluid flow up into the clear vial with interest. She couldn't even imagine what it might have to tell. She set it aside as the little bottle was filled, then with a small swab cleaned off a bead of blood trying to rise. She held another to the spot once she'd cleaned it, flashing him another smile. "Would you like a bandage with flowers or spaceships?"

He frowned, and she laughed to herself.

Their time together went on like this much longer, she had a hundred more tests to run. By the time an hour had passed his body was utterly without flaw, passing tests he'd failed at the start. His organs were fully functioning, his lungs more healthy than anyone could hope for. Full nervous activity. In fact, he seemed to be using more brain power than humans ever did.

With several blood samples set aside, and a small army of test results, she had to admit to herself he no longer had any need of her assistance. Sighing, she leaned one hip against his table and rubbed her eyes tiredly. It had been several hours, her guard which had at the start been so imposing now leaning and slouching and human again. Only John was unhindered by the passage of time.

"Well, despite the fact that I should be signing your death certificate, you seem perfectly healthy." She confessed. "Which means it's time I leave you. I hope the Admiral knows how fortunate he is to have someone as gifted as yourself. Take care, John. And for my own sake, avoid any more cryogenic mishaps? You can send me flowers once you're settled."

She gave his hand a gentle squeeze, no longer unsettled by the utter emotionlessness of his face. She'd continued talking to his throughout the process, amused by how little he changed externally when so much was going on inside him.

Slipping the white coat off her shoulders, she set it aside on one of the trays and picked up her own tan coat from the floor, pulling it around her body. "Gentlemen?"

Two red shirts moved forward, presumably Waylon and Anderson. She nodded, and the pair made their way to the door. She was just moving through it when he spoke.

"Doctor Swan."

She perked up, looking over her shoulder. John had sat up, his legs hanging over the side which explained why the other men in the room had stiffened. He wasn't smiling exactly, but the hostility she'd first noticed was no longer present.

"Thank you for your assistance."

"You're welcome." She gave a small smile. "Good luck, John."

He tilted his head, as if her good wishes were strange to hear. She took a long look at the medical miracle, her mind aching with an overload of ideas about the millions of possibilities if John's abilities could be replicated. He had trapped her, by no design of his own. She was, merely by the sharing of the impossible, bound to him in a way she didn't understand or enjoy. Her mind could think of all the ways his abilities could heal. Now she had to face the mind eager to see how they could be harnessed to destroy.

Then she followed her escort out of the med bay, sliding her hands into her pockets and keeping her eyes down as she was led down a catwalk through the hanger of the massive base she likely wasn't authorized to know existed. She couldn't trouble herself with whatever was going on around her. Now she had to assemble herself for the oncoming throw down with the man she'd sworn at the beginning of her carrier never to help again.

Starfleet saw Admiral Alexander Marcus as a hero, a figure to rally behind.

Starfleet hadn't had a glimpse behind the curtain though.

She knew, somewhere in her basic instincts, that she'd just helped to restore a natural predator. It manifested as a small shiver, which with a frown she tried to ignore as she pulled her jacket tight. But as much as she tried to tell herself she was wrong, there was no forgetting the ferocity in the man's eyes as he tried to decide how to proceed.

John, whoever he was, was a killer. And she, in whatever small part, had helped bring him back.


	2. Chapter 1: Ripples

_Vancouver Rural Area 2259, 45. _

There was something infinitely humbling about the boom of thunder. Different from the roar of an engine or the steady noise of a city, it was one of nature's most imposing sounds. Eve felt the corner of her lip tug as it resonated above her, casting out across the inky grey clouds. She kept her eyes shut, arms outstretched as raindrops tugged and pressed against her clothes and skin.  
"There will come soft rains," she murmured, lids slowly lifting. The green of the yard was vibrant under the torrential downpour, the thunder having cracked open the sky. The poem her mother used to recite made its way around her mind. The rain was cold – February rain which in higher altitude was sinking in downy flakes. But here it hammered against the skin, thick drops which caused a mist upon collision.

She turned to look as she heard giggling, and smiled as she saw the set of mismatched eyes – one blue, on green – peeking out at her. The face was small, still round with childhood. Eve crouched, grinning as she held her hands out. "Come into the rain, Lacy."

The little girl squeaked, ducking back behind the glass which was doubled by the open door. As she moved out of the doorway, the second pane slid back in place to form a wall of paneled windows. Eve leaned her head to one side, lifting her brows. The girl wouldn't be able to hear her anymore, but the look conveyed enough challenge that Lacy dashed back to the door, straining up on tiptoe to touch the clear center of a steel ring, which lit up at her touch and opened the door again upon recognizing the hand.

Squealing, she rushed out into the rain, shrieking in delight as Eve ran and scooped her up, throwing her onto one shoulder and spinning her round shouting, "Take off in three, two, one!"

The little girl made her best rocket noise, and Eve shook her obligingly before the pair dissolved into laughter, and Eve slid her into her arms so that they were face to face. "How was my little rocket ship's day?"

"Good." She said obligingly, little hands snaring in Eve's wet locks. Like this the red had turned a deep nearly auburn shade, a strange contrast when the girl held it up to her own pale blond. "I got to read my story out loud in class."

"Oh, you wrote story!" Eve made sure to sound enthused. "Was it about a female captain who saves her crew?"

"No." The little girl drew the word out teasingly, eager to play a game.

"No?" Eve bit her lip exaggeratedly, caring Lacy toward the door. "Was it about an Vorta that lost it's ears?"

"No!"

"Hmm…" Evelette made sure the door was locked before caring Lacy further into the house, the pair of them leaving a dripping trail. "How about a Vulcan who accidentally pinched his own nerve?"

"No!"

"Well then what?"

"About you in space, and you save the world from an asteroid, and get famous, and people all want to be your friends."

"Oh, I did that a before you were born." Eve tweaked the girls nose before depositing her on the bright pink bed spread that matched the rest of the little girl's room. "You should put on some dry clothes before your mother finds out I let you out in the rain."

There was a high pitched melody, which distracted both of them for a moment. Eve reached into the damp pocket of her pants, drawing out her communicator. "Lacy what time is your Mom home?"

"Soon." Lacy frowned, pouting on her bed.

"Okay, tell her I stopped by and get her to call me alright?" She flashed her niece a reassuring smile. "I've got to run back to my hospital, but I'm coming back for dinner okay? I want to hear your story."

"Here!" Lacy leapt off her bed, scooping her backpack up and running over to her aunt, hoisting up a small disk. "Mommy recorded me reading it out loud, so you can listen to it while you go to the office."

Eve took the silver cylinder, ruffling her niece's hair. "You still have to read it when I get back though, right?"

Lacy nodded vehemently, and Evelette poked her side. "Get dressed – see you later."

"Bye Aunty." Lacy called as Eve left her, hurrying down the hall and pulling open her communicator as she passed two cleaning bots working on mopping up her trail of liquid.

"Doctor Swan," She said into the com, collecting her jacket off a chair and pulling it on, glancing doubtfully at the blur of her car in the drive, obscured by the rain.

"Doctor, sorry to disturb you, but there's a man here to see you who's being rather insistent. I can have security remove him if you would like?" Her secretary sounded worried.

"Did he have an appointment we somehow missed?" Eve wondered aloud, stashing her niece's disk in her pocket and placing the com on a table as she slid the straps of her jacket through buckles, pulling up the collar on her trench coat. She picked the com back up.

"No Doctor, but he says he's a personal friend."

"Did he give a name?"

"He said to tell you John had arrived."

Eve paused, hand on the panel to open the front door. She blinked as it slid open, the rain pattering against her black flats, reeling against the chilling thought. John Harrison on Earth – what the hell could the Admiral have in mind to send the former patient to collect her?

One thing was certain: he wasnt here because Marcus had accepted her demands.

"I'm coming back, Ezra. See if he'd like something to drink, then I want you to go home early alright? I'll call you once I'm done. Make sure no one disturbs him while he waits."

"Doctor is everything alright?" The elderly woman's voice seemed strained. In their time working together since Eve had started her own practice, Ezra had become a motherly figure. Old frizzy white hair, dark skin time carved and yet warm. The secretary had more compassion than anyone Evelette had ever met, but she had no stomach for violence. When patients suffering mental illness became violent, Ezra would always get upset. The idea of the elderly woman and John in a room together made Eve's heart speed up.

Covering the communicator under her jacket, she dashed across to her car, leaping in gratefully as the door of the red vehicle slid upward. She put a hand on the wheel and the door shut, and as she put her seatbelt on she began talking again.

"Everything is fine. He's an old friend, but he wasn't meant to arrive for a few days. We'll be talking for a while… You said your daughter was in her third trimester? I don't think I'll be making my family dinner, someone ought to. Send Danielle my best wishes."

"Alright. But if you need anything -"

"I'll call someone else." Evelette glanced over her shoulder, pulling out of the driveway carefully. "Go have a lovely evening Ezra – I don't want to see you until tomorrow morning, you understand? Relax and enjoy your time with Danielle."

"Oh I will Doctor. Drive safely."

"You too."

She shut the communicator and shot off down the road. Suburb and carefully established nature gave way to cement and gliding architecture as she entered the city of Vancouver. The traffic was insistent as always, and she found herself drumming her fingers on the wheel as she waited for it to move. On a good day she could go from her office to her sister's house in a half hour, but here it took nearly twice that. By the time she pulled in in front of the impressive structure made mostly of glass, she was suffering tremors in her hands.

When she'd said she'd go no further with Marcus' plan three months back, she hadn't honestly believed she'd be left in peace. But she had left because John couldn't, because they had trapped him solely for the purpose of pumping out machines of war. She'd implored Marcus to let him go, to let John choose to be Starfleet or live apart from it, and she'd been handed a suggestion to resign. Again.

Four months since she'd seen him last, behind the thick wall of his prison. She was one of the few permitted entry, being in charge of his wellbeing while also being allowed to study the regenerative capabilities of his cells. The last time she'd spoken to him, he had been morose. In her time studying him, she learned that the animalistic under layer of John was his innermost self. Wrapped in genius intelligence and chilled composure, he was human so long as he remained in control. His cage had been wearing away at the control, however. After scanning to check his vitals, he'd snatched her wrist and turned it, the pair of them locking eyes.

His hand had been oddly closed as he laid it over her own, other hand still firmly gripped so she couldnt move it at all. The jesture was as intimate as it was eerie.

_"Do you seriously want to know how to help me, Doctor Swan?" _

His voice haunted her mind as she entered the building, nodding to the pair of men at the entry desk as they greeted her. The building was multipurpose, her section taking up floors one hundred to one hundred fifteen. There were labs, offices, rooms for patients, waiting rooms, she had even purposed rooms for families of patients to rest in. Her family had always been wealthy, but it was a sizable donation from Starfleet that made the miniature hospital possible – a gift from Admiral Marcus for her first retirement. She treated some of the most severe cases of neural damage of the continent in her private facility. She had thirty doctors and surgeons working under her, a host of nurses and orderlies.  
This late in the afternoon, the building was beginning to empty. Many were heading home, but as she opened onto her floor there was the usual thrum of activity. She smiled and nodded as she was greeted on her way through the main foyer – the public elevator only had access to her first floor, the rest were accessed by one of two private elevators.

The foyer desk had another receptionist, a young woman who had been in the building a few years now. Her desk was a white oval, encompassing a tall slate of naturally smoothed stone with lettering attached in black metal, the elegant script reading Swan and Associates Neurology Clinic. The floor was white two meter squared tiles, three walls the same material and one the glass which looked over the city. The foyer commanded two stories of it's section, so at the second story line there were windows from waiting rooms and a few offices.  
Striding over to the left elevator, she hit the button for one hundred fifteen. No one joined her though there was a few staff members waiting for the lift. She watched the clear doors shut, and then was lifted away from the eyes turned elsewhere. She didn't tolerate unintelligence, and it made plenty of people uneasy. Mostly it was the doctors and surgeons who were comfortable around her, janitors and orderlies and even the nurses tended to be on edge when she entered a room.

If they only knew, she thought as the door opened to her private floor. All her patients were attended to here, kept here while recovering from surgery, given one of the rooms down the hall to the right to stay the night while a loved one did the recovering. She walked up to Ezra's desk, ignoring her name once again plastered to the wall. To her it was pretentious, but the backers for the clinic picked the design. There was a small card sitting on her secretary's keyboard, written in the woman's quick scratching style. Evelette picked it up, reading quickly.

_Your friend is waiting in your office. I'm in tomorrow by seven, but don't hesitate to call if you require assistance. I have security on standby, just hit the page button on your office com.  
Just in case, of course  
Ezra_

Tapping the card against the desk, Eve folded it over and place it aside before moving further into the office. This was the only level silent as this hour. There would be a few nurses checking on patients – she presently had a three on site, Mrs. Halestrom suffering from a stroke, Ms. Edlend who was combating a brain tumor, and Mr. Bradley who was simply getting too old to function. But apart from ten, maybe twelve people, the floor would be empty, and none would be near her office. Due to the lack of need, power was lowered on her level at this time, the lights significantly dimmed.

She took a deep breath as she went left rather than right, wet shoes slapping loudly against the tile. As an afterthought, she stopped short and removed them, holding them by her side and padding more quietly as she approached her office. Unlike the rest of the facility, her office had no glass on the walls that were inside the perimeter of the building. Only the ones touching the city were glass, and so the white tile blocked any chance of seeing exactly where John was. Her door was clear, but she stopped in front of it as she noticed the office was dark.

Stepping up to it, the door retracted into the wall to make way for her. Her dimmed lights turned on at her presence, the one on her desk encased in frosted orange glass and several matching hanging orbs dangling from the roof. Her office had a bookcase build into one wall, a set of black leather chairs in front of her black desk, and her own taller black chair. There were tables with various trinkets – a statue of the God Ganesh from when she spent time helping impoverished people in India, a picture of her sister and her brother in law cradling a newborn Lacy between them, a hologram of the Milky Way galaxy which suspended in a miniature form, planets moving sluggishly around the sun.

But the room was empty.

She let out a sigh, moving out a hand to grip the back of one of her patient chairs. She felt unsteady, like she was about to be violently ill. Sitting down, she closed her eyes and leaned forward, covering her eyes with one hand as she waited for the nervousness to pass.

Maybe this was Marcus' sick idea of a message. Send a random agent, get him to call himself John, scare the living crap out of her that she was about to be forced to drop everything for something else he wanted.

"Doctor Swan."

Her eyes flickered open. She didn't dare look. The voice was directly behind her.

"You seem… agitated."


	3. Chapter 2: Radix Malorum est Cupiditas

**Finally more than a tease at Khan! I usually try to do a chapter a day, but had to miss yesterday as I went to see the movie again to make sure I was familiar enough with the character to do him justice. Somehow after three times seeing it my room mate just isn't as eager to join me! Anyways, enjoy! **

_Jupiter Station 2258, 67._

"Doctor Swan."

John spoke her name before he looked up, seated on a cushioned cot attached to the wall. The entire cell was white, including the clothes he had been given. It made the darkness of his hair and the world beyond the clear wall more sharply contrasted. Though she was kept on a tight leash as to what information about the station she was given – she didn't even know where they were – simply from the time it took to reach the cell she could tell they were in the belly of the facility.

Evelette paused as the door slid shut behind her, the silver pane on the wall flashing a red light to let her that the door was now locked.

Despite what she'd agreed with Marcus, and the prompting of the slowly assembling system team the admiral was constructing for her, she'd refused to have John given any kind of sedative. Considering how his body could bring itself back from the brink of total ruin, she had no idea how much sedative would need to be administered to keep him under – or if there was anything beyond a phaser capable of knocking him out without killing him.

Shooting her patient didn't seem the right course of action when attempt to build a positive rapport. "Hello again. How are you feeling?"

He lifted a brow. "Constrained."

She moved across the gap between them, setting her data pad aside and drawing a pen out from the pocket of her lab coat. She moved in front of him, lifting the pen to his eye level. "Follow this for me please."

He did as instructed, watching the pen as she moved it back and forth.

"You're in uniform now." He noted, not bothering to look at the blue shirt she had on underneath the lab coat. "I assume this means we'll be seeing each other regularly."

She nodded, picking up the data pad from beside him and tucking the pen away, typing her password and placing her finger to be scanned when prompted on the device. Satisfied, it opened up the new wealth of information. The blood she had collected was still in the primary stages of testing, but there was plenty more information about the man now than when she'd first seen his file.

"I'm surprised you elected to continue, considering my imprisonment." John watched her hands moving over the device.

"I hope you're not looking for someone to show the innermost workings of your wounded soul. I specialize in the brain, but more the physical bit." She gave him a small teasing smile he didn't return. She lowered the data pad, meeting his gaze. "You're not going to be here forever. Marcus is paranoid, but he doesn't commit evil simply for the sake of evil. Show him you have a use and that he can trust you, and he'll let you out of this room."

"Such freedom." John rasped, eyes narrowing slightly. "It's a wonder your bones don't crack under the weight of it."

She shrugged. He had a right to be in a foul mood – she imagined she'd be behaving exactly the same if Marcus was keeping her locked up. The restrains on her life irked her enough – being confined to one room would have driven her to homicidal innuendo to. "If it makes you feel better, I wasn't given a choice about coming her either."

"Yet you choose to remain." He noted coolly. "Why?"

"May I?" She gestured to beside him. When he made no indication, she rolled her eyes and sat down anyway. She held the data pad in front of him, showing the scan of his organs. Orange light ignited in small sections, then spread rapidly over them to illustrate cellular reparation. "Your cells heal themselves. It's not a matter of stem cells repurposing themselves to replenished damaged tissue, you cells_ heal themselves_. It's unheard of – it could revolutionize modern science, not to mention the lives it could save. I have a niece, paralyzed from the waist down. If her body could do what yours does – she could run with other kids her age. She could walk into her graduation, her wedding."

"So you intend to study me." He seemed entirely unaffected by the information.

"Nothing intrusive, you have my word." She lowered the data pad into her lap, looking at him imploringly.

"And what is that worth, Doctor? Your word."

_Vancouver 2259, 45._

"I appreciate your haste." His voice was amused. "Another few moments, and you could have spared your security staff serious injury."

She stood swiftly, snapping round to face him. He wore civilian clothes, standing so his face was more shadowed than the rest of his body. His hands were in his pockets, but she could see a dark spray misted on the bottom of his coat.

"I hope you don't intend to insult my intelligence by pretending Marcus sent you here." Her voice shook slightly.

He tilted his head, moving over to look out at the city. "Are you frightened, Doctor Swan?"

"I suppose." Dishonesty seemed unwise. "Why are you here?"

He didn't answer, continuing to watch the tiny people below, rushing to get out of the weather amidst flashing cars and traffic lights. Her eyes went to the door beyond him.

"Ill advised."

It was a warning, but he said it like simple fact.

"We both know who would reach it first."

"Why are you here, John?" She tried again.

There was no avoiding whatever course of action he had decided was favourable, she could see that. She couldn't outrun him, her security was likely a bloody smear on the tiles, and at a time of his choosing, he could crush the life from her pathetically struggling body. All she could do was force him into action.

She moved around the chairs, going to his side and peeking down at the city. "Congratulations on your liberation. Freedom isn't what you'd expect, is it? Less… free."

"Liberation suggests I had help, which as we both know I did not." He said crisply.

Letting out a long breath, she lifted her eyes to beyond the buzz of humanity, to the thrashing sea beyond the city.

_Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,  
If mankind perished utterly;_

"This must be strange for you." She realized aloud. "The world changes a lot in three hundred years."

"Less than one might expect." He said indifferently. "How is your niece? Enjoying the benefits of your labour?"

She stiffened.

"Poor show. That's your weakness – you're incapable of suppressing your emotions, it makes you disappointingly easy to manipulate. I need something from you, and now all I need to receive it is apply a subtle pressure – perhaps her spinal cord? Relax, Doctor, I have no intentions to harm the child, provided you give me what I want."

"Which is?"

"Liberation."

She frowned, lifting a hand to touch the glass. "But you're free – you've already escaped."

"I've escaped, but a certain device hampers any sense of… freedom."

Eve hesitated. "I don't know much about electronics."

"You are not required to. The device is implanted in my parietal lobe. It's of my own design – intended to deactivate the host's ability to move, or simply deactivate them at the discretion of the chip's operator. I have the mechanism the chip responds to, however I'm incapable of deactivating it myself, naturally."

"You've got to be joking." She looked to him in alarm.

John faced her. "Ha, ha, ha," he said dryly. "We will need to leave immediately."

"Leave – where are we going?" She spluttered, instinctively looking to the door.

"Considering the devices potential to transmit my location, we'll need to relocate to where I've placed the controls before Starfleet taps into the system and finds me in your very poorly protected office."

"I'm not a surgeon!" She cried, taking a step back. "John – I'm not qualified to crack open your skull and go fishing for some plastic chip."

"You won't need to – a simply puncture to the skull fracturing the chip will suffice, my cells will do the rest of your work for you. I have all the equipment you require. Now, shall we go or must I issue another pointless threat to recripple the child?"

Eve tried to swallow and winced as her dry throat strained. "I don't suppose I have time to pack?"

He examined her with a look that answered the question. She smiled weakly. "Well, let's go crack open your skull then. Not as if I had better plans for my future than being branded a enemy of Starfleet."


	4. Chapter 3: Infectious Attitudes

Walking with John felt strange, like being side by side with a star about to go supernova. All that potential for destruction, and yet he could move so easily through a crowd of people. Who could brush shoulders with him and think him unremarkable?

"I need to leave my secretary a note." She paused at the desk, sitting down in her assistant's chair and plucking up one of the note pads. Though paper was seriously outdated, Ezra had an appreciation for the elegance of the past – she always had good thick grade paper, which caused the fountain pen to his while it carved the words as much as it inked them.

She stopped halfway through, glancing up to see what John was doing. He was starring directly at her.

"I have people who count on my being here. My leaving without a words would draw a lot of attention. My leaving with a note won't be much better, but it's less likely Ezra will notify the authorities. Slightly."

"You aren't capable of controlling those under you?" The idea seemed to surprise him.

"Ezra is a friend." Strangely, his comment stung. She wanted to believe it was simple ego, but something about John thinking less of her than her already did saddened her. Worried he'd notice, she went back to writing. "You can't control your friends and keep them. Speaking of…"

She set the note next to the one Ezra had left her, standing and taking the lead toward the elevator. "I assume yours a plenty eager to help you exact revenge on Starfleet – your crew doesn't have any medical staff to do this for you? I doubt you trust me more than them."

"They're gone."

She looked to John, alarmed. He made no attempt to hide the misery it caused him, though grieving looked different on him than most. Not puffy red eyes and shaky breath… his wounds lay in the way the muscles of his body loosened, and the way the ones around his mouth tightened. There was a pit without end expanding in his eyes, threatening to swallow anyone responsible for it.

He had spent the better part of a year allowing her to run medical exams, building machines for a man who repulsed and enraged him. In her final days on the stations, she had learned why John remained. With his advanced intellect she had never truly believed they had a cage capable of containing him against his will. He had seventy two reasons to endure.

A bond like the one John felt for his crew didn't come one sided. They would never leave him.

Which left only on answer: Marcus had destroyed them.

"I'm so sorry." Eve couldn't think what else to say, though it was so colossally inadequate.

"Sincerity." He noted. "I forgot your capacity to shock."

And nothing more was said of it.

The doors drew open, and she released a small breath of relief to find it empty. She stepped in, pressing the last button and waiting as he climbed on. They were silent as the elevator began taking them downward, and she found herself gripping one of the silver rails that lined the large box for support as they went.

She needed to call her sister to say she wasn't coming, but then Lacy would want to talk to her and she couldn't bear to speak to her – especially not in front of him. He already knew her weaknesses, but she didn't intend to showcase them all the same.

Eve flinched as the elevator halted prematurely, attention snapping to the doors as they parted to reveal a middle aged woman, doctor Latish. Evelette found her irksome, but Latish was one of the doctors recruited by request of the board of directors.

She was popular, but impossibly nosey and an endless source of useless aggravating chitchat.

"Doctor Swan! I thought you'd gone home for the day!" Latish beamed as she stepped on, gaze going at once to John, standing too close to Evelette to be a stranger.

"Emergency." Eve forced a smile, leaning forward to urge the elevator shut. "My new patient was feeling apprehensive about his upcoming procedure, so we got together to touch base."

"Ah, this must be he?" Latish made her voice swagger as if to be funny. She thrust out her hand. "Hello, I'm Doctor Batia Latish."

"Michael Foxx." John's eyes narrowed all but imperceptible. He kept his hands in the pockets of his coat.

"Mr. Foxx is suffering from immune system damage, has to be careful with coming into contact with germs." Evelett patted Latish's arm to try and smooth the awkwardness. "How's Mr. Davis?"

Latish launched into an epic about her treatment of an elderly man, scraping the edged of doctor patient confidentiality simply for the sake of flare. Her eyes kept going back to John, who quickly stopped listened. It took Eve a moment to realize the other doctor was attempting to impress him. The thought put her in a slightly better mood.

"Well best be off. Have a good night Batia." Evelette said to Latish as the elevator opened to ground floor. "Mr. Foxx?"

John nodded, following her out as Latish stood a moment, crestfallen. As they climbed into the building main elevator, Eve allowed herself a small laugh. John looked at her expectantly and she shook her head. "I don't think I've ever seen her snubbed before. I'm sorry, nerves, I'll stop."

She bit her lip, still grinning as they headed down.

After a moment of silence he tilted his head. "She talks excessively."

"She really does." Eve chuckled, looking down at her feet. "She's a good doctor though. I hear she started in training for surgery, even."

"Ah, perhaps I should bring her along instead then is that what you would suggest?"

"Well, she talks to much, you speak only when you have something to say, it seems a pretty fair balance." She confessed. "But then, I don't trust her with my patient. So, where are we going Mr. Foxx? I hope somewhere sunny."

"Relatively. I doubt you'll see much of the weather, however, we'll be underground."

"Like sewer rats. Marvelous." She noticed they were getting lower in numbers on the screen. "We're almost to ground floor. Are we taking my car?"

He held out his hand, and reluctantly she pulled out her keys dropping them into his palm. "So you're driving then."

"Follow me." He said unhelpfully, moving to the front of the door and stepping out the instant they were broad enough. He walked with as fast a pace as could be considered casual, so she could keep up but had to work at it. Trying not to look flustered, she waved to the security at the front desk, though she barely saw them as John exited the building.

She followed him out onto the steps, calling, "Mine's the red one."

He paused at the passenger side as the door swung open. She slowed to a halt beside him, taking one last look up at the building as she shielded her eyes from the rain. "Does anyone know you were here?"

"It's entirely possible." He confessed with little concern.

"So I'll be joining you on the lofty throne of Starfleet's most wanted." She pulled her jacket close, looking down at the seat. "I really can't dr-"

There was a sharp pain in her neck, and in an instant it pulsed through her entire body as if her blood stream had been filled with molten lead. She staggered against John, who's arm went around her side, the other scooping her legs out from under her and loading her into the car. The pain was leaving quickly now as the door shut next to her, her body laying limp in the slightly reclined seat. Everything sounded as if it were coming through a tunnel, her vision starting to blur. She saw his dark shape climb in next to her, tossing an injector onto the floor by her feet.

"Don't be alarmed, Doctor Swan. My blood will fix any of the virus' potentially permanent effects."

She tried to speak but it came out in a groan. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she felt him draw the seatbelt across her body, locking her into place. Time grew thick and stretched like honey left to crystalize in the sun. Her body went through fits of hot and cold, but the car never halted. She managed to pull off her jacket in one of the warm fits, but found it on her later in the midst of shivering. From time to time the pain resurfaced. The only constant was John's silence, which swallowed her as exhaustion finally dragged her under.


	5. Chapter 4: Echo in the Dark

_San Francisco Starfleet Headquarters 2252, 261 _

"Lieutenant, are you certain this is the call you want to make?"

"Decidedly."

"We'll be sorry to lose you – you preformed beyond any possible expectation, given the circumstances."

"Circumstances which could have been avoided, Sir."

Marcus raised a brow, his eyes locked with Evelette's as she stood in her blue dress, stiff and drained looking from lack of sleep. She looked less than a two blink jump from snapping all together – her expected resignation was clearly taking its toll.

"The Chief Medical officer, Lieutenant Commander Orthos felt the threat was minimal – there was no way of predicting the virus's ability to mutate."

"Then it should not have been tampered with. Sir." She swallowed, wincing.

"Is that your professional opinion Lieutenant?"

"Sir."

"And why didn't you express said opinion earlier, Lieutenant?"

Evelette blinked, head twitching to one side as she frowned. Her mind was struggling to insure she'd heard him correctly. "Sir… I reported to you when Medical Chief Orthos agreed to study the virus, I explained the threat of mutation."

"I don't remember any such conversation."

"Sir, it was on the bridge, everyone heard -"

"Do you have anyone who can attest to this supposed conversation?" Marcus waited with mock expectation as she stared at him blankly. "No? I think you'll find my crew will comply with my report, that the medical team unanimously agreed the virus had no threat when experimentation began. Oh, don't look so wounded Lieutenant, I gave you a glowing report with how you dealt with the dead and dying after Medical Chief Orthos was killed. No one is going to come pointing fingers your way anyhow."

"But it's a lie!" She bleated, looking about as if there were someone else in the captain's office. She took a step closer to Marcus imploringly. "Sir – there were three vials left of the virus that Chief Orthos was saving for further testing, but there's no record of them in any of the reports. Please, tell me they've been disposed of accordingly?"

"Lieutenant, what would be the point in saving a virus you've already synthesised a cure for?" Marcus smiled coldly.

"It's capability to mutate means my cure wouldn't work on a second outbreak." She said urgently. "Sir, I'm resigning because it was in no way Starfleet mandate to study any sort of potential Biological Agent – the production of biological weaponry, not to mention weaponry of any kind, is against everything Starfleet ever stood for. I'm resigning my post, but if I think your planning on continuing research on the Deep Space Virus -"

"It's been disposed of, Lieutenant." Marcus cut across her threat. "And I don't appreciate your insinuating that I have any kind of desire to weaponize the virus that killed half my crew. Your resignation is accepted, you are relieved. Now get the hell out of my office, and take the bonus Starfleet is offering you to start your own practice, Doctor Swan. You're a damn good scientist - make yourself useful here."

She stood a moment, pinned between instinct to follow orders and overwhelming doubt that Marcus was telling her the truth. She'd watched him bully Orthos into examining the virus, which would be pointless outside of investigating it's potential to be controlled. He'd laughed at her concern as she begged him on the bridge to reconsider.

And now he was throwing money in her face and telling her to go away.

Reluctantly, she straightened and saluted. He nodded, already busy looking at a new report coming in and waving his hand to suggest she leave. Eve took a long look at the former captain, then left the office. She took the elevator to street level, moving out into the blasting heat. She looked around at the sea of cadets and lieutenants, commanders and captains. Starfleet was a hub of the young and eager, everyone wanting to make their mark on the universe.

She was young for a lieutenant, her intelligence having advanced her. But she felt suddenly the most ancient of anyone planet side, her illusions stripped away. Whatever Starfleet was meant to be, this flight into the edges of Deep Space had changed everything.

Starfleet was going to rot from the core outward, until exploration became conquering.

She looked down at the pin on her chest, the small silver insignia of Starfleet. She pulled it from the fabric, turning it over in her hands. She let it sit for a moment, face up, and then headed down the steps. She pulled out the long pin from her hair, letting it fall against her shoulders. As she passed a trash compactor, she threw the silver pin away.

_Underground 2259, 55._

Evelette's skin felt like the cells had all been hyper charged, bashing into one another and barely managing to hold it together. There was a strange taste in her mouth, like the smell of heated metal. And she was cold – freezing cold.

It took a long time to get her eyes to open. Her body was stiff and uncomfortable, as if her dimensions had changed in the time from leaving her office to the present. Her vision was still blurred, and that to took time to clear and focus.

She could see a table, steel framing a glass surface littered with scans. There was a wall of screens, illustrating data she instantly recognized as John's. She could only see a fraction of what was there, laying in a sort of alcove on a flatly padded black bench. Her muscles shivered so her arm trembled as she pushed herself up, pulling her arms around herself as she realized her jacket was gone. Her green sweater was made of thin material, and the cold of the room had leeched into her as she slept.

No, not slept. As she was passed out.

Carefully she swung her legs over the side of the bed. She tried to get to her feet, but staggered and fell back against the bench. She gasped as pain shot up her spine, and clenched her eyes shut for a moment as she gripped the bench, waiting for the pain to pass.

She could remember Orthos' reports now, as they made their laps around her brain. Old stashes of words she'd long since put to rest.

_The virus attacks the central nervous system first, primarily the spinal cord, debilitating the victim into a paralytic state._

Eventually she was able to release the bench, lifting one of her hands to touch her neck where John had stabbed her with the injector. She could feel a small raised bump where the skin had healed over.

There were a hundred things he could have given her, but she was beginning to learn better than to doubt the simplest answer.

She had been right to quit the first time. The virus lived on.

And that arrogant three hundred year old bastard had infected her with it. How he had even come to possess a vial she didn't want to wonder about, but the fact that he had used the only palpable thing in the universe she was genuinely afraid of…

"John?" Her called out, her voice hoarse. When no one answered, she forced herself to be louder, "Come out here to coward!"

Nothing but a sore throat. She pressed her feet against the ground, but they were still useless. She managed to pull them back up, laying back down. She waited for a long time, drifting in and out of sleep. Her skin stopped tingling, and after realizing the taste on her tongue was probably from the stages of coughing up blood, her determination to get up overpowered her fear of falling again.

Bracing herself, she returned her feet to the floor. Her legs shook as she stood, using the bench as best she could to support herself. She let herself adjust, then let go of the seat and straightened. She walked toward the table, reaching it after a painfully long time. It was a relief, though, to have something to put her weight on.

She spread out the sheets, showing a mapping of John's brain. It showed the chip, to, sitting at the top of his brain as promised. Judging by its size in relation to his brain on the page, it looked to be the size of a thumbnail. Not so hard to miss, when inserting a spike into the human brain.

Eve had established in her time with John that his abilities weren't controlled primarily by the brain – rather each cell responded due to alteration of his genetic code – but the idea of shoving a sharp rod into his skull and swirling it around attempting to fracture a computer chip made her feel nauseated.

Or maybe that was still the virus talking.

Leaning on the table, she looked around the rest of the room. There was another table with a chair, and plenty more screens detailing everything known about John Harrison, but that was all. Thick cement walls and floors, and a silver door across the room.

The journey to which was extremely unamusing. By the time she reached it she had broken into a slight sweat. She looked for a panel, but there was none. She hit the door, just in case, but it seemed to cause her more pain than the metal. She managed to make it back to the chair, but all the muscles of her legs were twinging unpleasantly and she was panting. She groaned, laying her head against the table.

She was hungry, and cold, and angry.

When the door opened, she snapped up in time to look like she was embarrassed she was exhausted, earning her a look of disapproval from John as he strode in. "Ah, good, you're awake. We'll need to get started right away, this place won't be secure for much longer and they are no doubt getting close to tapping into this chip again."

"Your chip," She said venomously. "You think I give a damn about your chip? You infected me with the Deep Space Virus, and you want to talk about your chip?"

She pushed herself up, storming towards him as he stood with brows raised. He didn't flinch as she lifted a hand, slamming it as hard as she could against his chest. She swung the other one, but only managed a few feeble hits before she was panting and dizzy.

"Do you feel satisfied?" John asked critically.

"Oh go contract a case of decapitation." She snarled, but she groaned and pitched dangerously to the right. He moved forward, steadying her and then picking her up, ignoring as she began shouting, "Don't touch me!"

There was nothing chivalric in the way he held her, striding across the room. He likely would have hoisted her over his shoulder had it been more convenient, and the way he dropped her on the bench was entirely lacking in gentlemanly sensitivity. She gasped as pain lurched up her back again, distracting her long enough to keep her from fighting him as she rolled up her sleeve, pressing an injector to the flesh and driving it in.

She didn't look over till it was done, glaring at him as he placed the injector aside and pulled her sleeve back down. "The serum you created from my blood – you're cure was convenient while I had no need of you, but it's time to move this along."

"While you had no need of me." She laughed darkly. "And should I expect reinfection when I reassume that designation?"

He shook his head, as if she were being childish. "Hardly. I only brought one sample of the virus with me."


	6. Chapter 5: The Surgery

Watching John stand, removing his coat and walking over to the table, Evelette noticed for the first time how dirty he was. Covered in dust, in fact. He didn't seem to mind, tossing the coat on the table's corner and picking up one of the images that best displayed the disk. She could feel her body tingling again, the result of his cells intermingling with her own. It was a strange concept, that they now shared DNA, until her own would take over in time.

"You used my cure? It shouldn't have worked." She called, sitting up as his blood began to really take effect. One had to marvel at the sheer speed of it.

"Marcus' team worked on controlling the virus, until it could no longer mutate." John explained briefly. "A virus you can't control makes for a poor weapon ultimately."

She frowned. "Is that even possible?"

"Before I arrived, unlikely. The virus has been trained to attack a specific genetic code."

There was a strange pitching sensation where her insides seemed to drop. "So each vial is only capable of attacking a single person?"

"And I took yours." She could see him smirking. "You are welcome."

"Considering you infected me with it anyway, I don't really give a damn." She grumbled, drawing her legs up to her chest. "So could one coded to you actually kill you?"

"Potentially."

"I'll keep that in mind." She moved her feet back onto the ground, standing cautiously. Her body was perfectly steady. She wiggled her fingers, rotated the wrists and her neck. She was tender, but functional. She walked over to the table, but the opposite side from him. "You know for someone who poisoned their doctor you're eerily cheerful."

"Marcus knows I'm coming for him." John smiled – for the first time, a genuine smile. It disappeared quickly when he saw she'd been watching, but it lingered a moment in his eyes. They were strangely bright, invigorated. "Now, shall I show you your operating room?"

"I thought you'd never ask." She said dryly.

She followed him out, the door opening for him at once. They entered a hallways, lit by circular lights attached to the roof. It was all utilitarian. She followed him down the length of it, then at the end to the left through a door just like the one in the other room.

Eve stopped there, looking over the square room.

It was an exact replica of the one in which they'd first met, minus the Starfleet crew.

"Déjà vu?" He inquired, leaning against the table in the center. There, that was different she noticed with some relief. Flat steel, and operating table. As she continued searching, there were small flaws. The major machines were the same, but basic equipment was different – newer model injectors and the like.

Her scanning halted on a single rod, not unlike the beak of a hummingbird if it were made of steel and blow up to the size of a pit-bull.

"And that's what you want me to put into your head." She jutted her chin out to gesture to it, keeping her hands around her chest. It was still cold.

"Indeed, a touch menacing for you perhaps?"

"I'm getting used to menacing." She said pointedly. "So… lets go over your data."

There was plenty to look over, John had been very thorough in his own examinations of his anatomy. The chip had attached to the grey matter of his brain by tiny hook like feet, positioning it so that it would be impossible to remove the chip without serious damage to the brain. Piercing it would likely result in shards slicing into the grey matter, but John would be able to heal from that. Not that it wasn't going to be an ugly hour.

Sighing, Evelette rubbed her eyes as he finished his orientation on how to fracture a brain chip. In all her time at medical school, she'd never expected to have this conversation.

"So, I suppose it's time then."

"You feel prepared?"

"Give me another ten years I won't be prepared to skewer a patient's brain. I feel like I'm about to give you a lobotomy."

Still, she helped secure him to the table with the padded metal restrains, and set up the intravenous line. She could see he had become tense again, uncomfortable with being strapped down.

She walked over to his side so he could see her. "We don't have to do this, you know. We'll find another way, if that's what you want."

"This is the best way." He said, back inside his uncaring guise.

"You sure you trust me?" She tried humor. Sometimes it helped him. "I could cut something and disable your healing."

"Doubtful. Besides we both know you're incapable of killing me, so you'll do your utmost to insure success here. You're too frightened of what I'd do to you if you fail."

The sudden cruelty caught her off guard. She took a step back. "Maybe I owe it to the world to try."

"Yes, but you don't rightly know how. You could attempt it, but you've no means of escaping this facility and eventually the sedative will run dry and I will awake fully healthy and in perfect condition to crush your bones between my hands. Is there a point to this exercise doctor?"

"I'm attempting to understand why you feel the need to antagonize me."

"I could say the same of you."

"You injected me with a virus that killed a good portion of the people I've ever met."

"It was the simplest way to transport you."

"There were other ways to pacify me." She said softly. "You didn't do it because it was convenient you did it because you enjoy hurting things that are inferior to you. You did it because you enjoy letting me know just how in control you are now. Well, I get it. You hate me, and there's nothing you won't do to get what you want. But you didn't have to threaten my niece, you didn't have to infect me, John. I would have done this is you asked."

He took a moment to consider what she said before he spoke. "Why?"

Letting out a massively held breath, she allowed her shoulder to sink down. She closed her eyes for a moment, to give herself some shelter from his unyielding stare. "Because I'm sorry, John, for what I did to you. I'm sorry for leaving, for not helping you the first instant we met, for trying to make myself forget. I'm just… sorry."

She opened her eyes slowly, and found a wary expression on his face. He didn't know what to make of the apology.

"Now, let's get this done." She sighed, walking over and plucking up the surgical coat from its hanger. "You're sure you have a sedative strong enough?"

"So long as it's continuously supplied."

"You know that would kill most people right?"

He didn't answer, settling back against the table. Evelette looked around the room one last time before her gathered up her hair, pulling it under one of the surgical caps and moving over to the sanitation station, allowing herself to be cleansed. She went over to the bulbs of fluid pumping into his veins and plucked two of the clear vials off a tray, inserting them into the injection tray. She watched the bulbs, trying to calm herself as she saw a sort of oily swirl entering.

"Alright, here we go." She warned him, glancing at her patient. He wasn't unconscious yet, she could tell, but he had shut his eyes. "Count down from ten for me?"

"Don't be infantile." He said dismissively, and she stuck her tongue out simply because she knew he wouldn't look. She went over to the sanitation area and plucked up her gloves, donning them as she heard his breathing slowing down.

"I'm just going to give Marcus a quick call first, alright?" She called, amusing herself when he didn't answer. She went to the top of his head, lifting it and moving forward the harness like device meant to steady him while giving her access and strapping him in.

She plucked up a scanner, lifting it to reveal his brain, shown on this screen in green with the chip a square of blue the computer was trying to identify. She moved it forward, allowing it to mark the skin above the anomaly with a red gew.

Eve set it aside, then plucked up the large spike. "Gods don't let me puncture something permanent."


	7. Chapter 6: Two Roads

**Hmm, I do believe there was a call for longer chapters? Just kidding - I agree they've been getting too short, it was nice to finally get to a good fleshy character development one. Dunno how many readers are here from my Hobbit story, but I really enjoyed writing how Evelette handles death differently than Sylven. But yes - I think it's about time I send out a thank you to all you fantastic readers, it's always such an honor to have people read your work, and your reviews are always a massively appreciated source of encouragement. You're all my heroes. Humbled as always to be noticed, I'll get out of your way and let you all find out how the surgery goes. Thank you for your continued support!**

Eve wouldn't be required to free hand. The drill – if that's what one would call the medieval looking tool – had a stand which could be adjusted to the correct point. When secured, she would simply have to pop a small trigger, and it would shoot forward the space allotted. John had already adjusted the mechanism to enter the correct depth. Hardly any of the point would actually be going in, but it didn't make it less terrifying.

Once she attached the drill, she moved around to the side to insure she was exactly on. It would be a tad awkward missing, and the room for error was virtually non-existent. She could _not_ be doing this twice.

Shifting back to the front of the machine, she lifted her head to see John on the table beyond. This was the second time she'd ever seen him peaceful, and she's been the one to drug him the time before as well.

What a curse, to always live in interesting times.

"Good luck." She murmured, though she wasn't sure who to.

Her finger slid over the trigger, and she waited a moment as she listened to the steady beat of his heart, conveyed by his cardiovascular monitoring screen.

"Good luck."

She popped the trigger, and the spike leapt forward. At once, there was an explosion of noise fro the screens alerting her that she'd punctured the brain. She released the rigger, and slowly the spike retracted it's red tip. She wheeled the machine back, snatching up gauze from a nearby tray and pressing it to the wound oozing blood into his hair.

By the time she'd gone through three pads, she was hopping on her heels. The brain map was showing none of the usual pulsing of nerves towards the puncture area, though she could see the scattered remains of the chip.

"John?" She called. "John can you hear me?"

She cursed, dropping the latest bloody square and bolting to his side, ripping out the needle from his arm and yanking off the mechanism keeping his head lifted. She pulled off the restraints, grabbing a genuine needle with the serum derived from his blood and ramming it down into his chest. It was of specific design, piercing through the sternum to reach the heart. She released the red liquid into his chest, then yanking the needle out sprinted to the medical case, ripping open the cabinet and looking wildly at the bottled with their small labels.

"Come on John, come on!" She snarled, grabbing bottles and tossing them aside. "You've got to -"

She whipped round as there was heaving noise, and John's eyes sprang open. "Shit!"

Snatching up a green bottle she'd thrown aside she grabbed and injector and rammed the vial in, leaping onto the table as he tried to get up and pushing on his chest. "Lie down – JOHN LIE DOWN!"

He slammed against the metal and she shoved the injector into his neck, continuing to keep a arm across his chest as he shook like he was in the grips of a minor seizure. She set aside the injector, watching the screen above her head. The nerve activity was beginning, but the hole was still there.

John let out a strangled scream as she shut her eyes, leaning all her weight on him as he began thrashing. "Shh.." she said, though she knew he couldn't hear her over the pain or his own voice. "It's going to stop soon. Just count back from ten."

"Ten." His shoulder jerked to once side nearly throwing her off. "Nine. Eight."

"Grah!" He yelped, slamming a fist so hard into the table it bent inward.

"Seven, six, five," she continued. Then he lashed out, catching her in the rips and sending her spinning off. She landed splayed on the floor, flesh slapping against the concrete. She lay still as he continued shouting, and then he scrambled off the table and landed in a heap by one of the legs, twitching. She put her hands under her shoulders, palms and knees burning as she hoisted herself up and began to crawl over to him. The machines had gone quiet with him off the table, scanning to try and locate him unsuccessfully.

John jolted up straight as she placed a hand on his arm, breathing in loud gasps. His eyes were wide, hair and face damp with sweat. It took him a minute to recognize her, and only after she removed the cap and slid out of the coat did the understanding return to him. "Did it work?"

Eve moved her hand off quickly, sitting back. She could feel where her body and face had hit first – she'd have an ugly bruise on her right side come tomorrow. "Yes."

He let his head fall back against the metal leg, eyelids drooping for a moment. "Good."

She let him sit for a while before she spoke up. "I should do a scan, make sure you're alright. You almost died, in case you were wondering. Whatever that sedative was, it was lowering your cellular development."

A noise of assent was the best she could hope to get from him, so getting to her feet with minimal fuss over her severely battered body, she wobbled over to grab the portable scanner, returning as sitting down beside him, lifting it up to head level and allowing it to begin the scan. The skull was fully healed, the connective tissue all but repaired along with the skin. The brain was healed, and the chip was on the whole relatively unmoved, fracturing minimal enough that it hadn't scattered.

"Well," She lowered the scanner. "For a very, very, old man, you're looking relatively healthy. Did anyone ever tell you you have a fractured chip in your brain? It gives character, I suppose, but it isn't exactly recommended to keep bits of debris in your skull."

He actually managed a chuckle, though he kept his eyes shut. "I'll consult my doctor about it. She is slightly above the average caliber."

"Slightly above average." She repeated, shaking her head in wonder. "Don't hurt yourself there John, that was nearly a compliment."

"You preformed… admirably."

"You're going to make me blush. Next you're going to tell me you don't think I'm blubberous and warty, so let's just stop now. Come on, we should get you somewhere to rest." She got back up, offering him a hand as he opened his eyes.

"No time." He shook his head, getting up with annoying ease. "I need to leave here in the next hour if I'm to make it to San Francisco."

"San Francisco." She said gravely. "You don't think I'm about to let you take on Starfleet today, do you? John, you just had brain surgery – you shouldn't even be awake yet!"

"If I were only human," he said dismissively heading to the door, "that would be true."

She had to struggle to keep up. "I don't care that you've got a super brain, you need to rest, eat. Your more than human, but you still need to follow the basic functions."

"And how do you propose to stop me?" He glanced over his shoulder then came up short. "Are you limping?"

"Yes, thank you for noticing, now slow your freakishly long strides and listen to me." She demanded. "As your doctor, I'm ordering you to sit and eat something."

"If you're so concerned, why not come with me?" He questioned distractedly, examining her leg. "Did you trip?"

"You threw me off when I was trying to hold you down." She huffed. "And I'll come with you if you take a minute to breathe."

"An hour, then I'm gone, and you should not be coming. It will be dangerous."

"Like brain surgery with a gigantic spear?" She was a little insulted. "If you're going after Marcus, then fine. I've given you the ability to do it and he has to be stopped before he moves the Deep Space Virus to mass testing stages. But we both have a reason to want him dead. You need revenge, I need to see that virus destroyed."

"Are you proposing we work together?" His amusement was more insulting still.

"I think we're a little passed the proposal don't you?" She countered. "When Marcus' people figure out your brain chip is out for good, how many seconds do you think it's going to take him to guess who you went to? I can't just go home, not without putting my family in danger. He killed yours, and mine is a lot more vulnerable. The only way they're safe is if Marcus is gone. And I can't leave that virus out there."

He moved towards her so quickly she couldn't help moving back, wincing as she hit the wall causing her side to ache.

"Doctor… you weren't willing to follow Marcus into the murder of millions, why would you willingly follow me?"

"Thousands."

"What?"

"You'll kill thousands to get what you want. It's how you were designed." She didn't avert her eyes from his. She couldn't be weak now. "Some to get what you want, then more on the station for us to get to the virus. I imagine I'll have to help you, at some point. But good people don't work on that station anyway."

"You worked there."

"Point proven."

He tilted his head. She breathed in sharply as he lifted a hand, placing it over her throat. He applied no pressure. He didn't need to – the point was made in the action. "You truly think you're capable of killing?"

"I think I already have, with that virus, I just haven't realized it till now." She felt a pearl of liquid slip down her cheek, but the shame she felt wasn't for crying. "If I don't help you kill thousands… I'll be responsible for the deaths of millions whether I agreed to it or not."

His fingers slid off her neck, and he moved back. "Very well."

Eve straightened, clearing her throat and wiping her cheek quickly. "So we leave in an hour?"

John nodded. "I'll take you to your things."

She followed him back down the hall, passing the door of the room she'd woken up in and into another large room, though this one was round, and dominated by a jumpship which had the same kind of dusty layer as the one on John's jacket. He gestured to a table off to the side with a computer, and she hurried to it as she saw her trench coat sitting next to the monitor. She pulled it around her gratefully, fighting the straps around the buckles. The warm crimson wool was welcome in the freezing air of the facility. It even smelled of home.

"What are you doing?" She asked, walking over to the ship which he'd climbed inside. She kept near the edge, slightly leery of the craft. "You stole this?"

"The idea disturbs you?" He didn't look up from programming.

"I'm adjusting my scope of the disturbing actually." She pushed some of her hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear. She moved around to the other side and climbed in, though she had to push her feet to one side to make room for a large black bag on the floor. She watched him working for a while – it was fairly interesting, as she had no knowledge of aircrafts.

"So you're programming out destination, creating a flight path?" She guessed.

He nodded. "I'm aware of your fondness for expensive attire, but you'll need to change for where we're going."

"Starfleet?"

"After that."

"Oh." She looked down at herself sadly. "Too 'I'm a medical professional?'"

"Too I don't know how to hold a phaser the correct direction."

She shot him a dirty look. "I do know how to use a phaser, by the way."

"Consider me warned. In the locker by the desk you'll find a bag of clothes, take what you like. We won't be returning here."

"It would be helpful if I knew where we were going."

"It will be dusty, the air will be unpleasant to breathe. And they dislike humans."

"Sounds like a good time."

Climbing out of the ship was a little more awkward, but she considered not landing on her face a success. She went back over to the desk, feeling along the wall until one of the panels slid up to reveal a locker with another black bag. She pulled it onto her shoulder, and not waiting for permission went back into the hall, retracing to her first room and returning to the bench. She threw the bag onto the black padding, taking a deep breath and dragging her fingers through her hair.

"Dusty and human hostile." She grumbled to herself. "Perfect for a newly created eco-terrorist."

She unzipped the pack, pushing the side back to reveal a tangle of clothing. She began pulling bits out, noticing at once that while some were for a masculine body, there were plenty for a woman as well.

"Arrogant bastard." She muttered, but it made her smile. All of the clothes looked well worn, but she managed to assemble the least damaged of the set. After a while she picked out a pair of tight fitting pants made of some sort of flexible material with little silver framed black hexagons for a pattern, a silver shirt with black mesh running up the sides to provide ventilation, and a coat that was a silver that might have once been purple, with three straps hugging under the bust and a decent hood to hide under. After a moment of consideration, she plucked up a hair of gloves and a red tattered scarf. As she slid on the gloves she became immediately aware that they had no middle or index finger, but figured beggars couldn't be choosers.

Changing in the room felt strange, and she found herself hurrying to be done with it. That was when she realized the flats would also be a problem.

She shifted about, trying to get comfortable in her new clothes as she pulled the scarf over her neck, trying tugging it up to cover her mouth then pushing it back down. She felt like an adventurer, minus the adventurous confidence.

Since the slip on shoes weren't going to do, she left them off and placed them aside with her shirt and pants on the bench. She was folding up her jacket when she felt the hard cylindrical form in the pocket.

The air in her throat caught, and she landed quickly on the bench to avoid hitting the floor. She tugged out the disk, throwing the coat on the floor. She turned it flat, then touched a hand to the silver circle printed onto the surface.

A small translucent Lacy appeared in front of her, grinning and waving wildly.

"Hi Aunty! Happy Birthday! Mommy says you forgot, so I'm not allowed to tell you till dinner time when I get to give you this, so you know we didn't forget! I wrote you a story, Aunty!" She waved a datapad, and Evelette laughed, putting a hand over her mouth as her eyes began to sting. "It's called, My Hero Aunty, by Lacy Donals!"

She heard the door open and tapped the button quickly, the hologram closing. John halted in the doorway, giving her a chance to clean away the tears forming without him seeing. He moved forward, stopping as he reached in front of her. He saw everything, she knew it instantly. He scanned her eyes, the disk in her hand, and had no need to ask.

"Are you prepared to go?" He inquired.

Sniffing she nodded, bobbing her head too quickly. She tucked the disk into her pocket. "You took my communicator."

"A necessary precaution." He was still assessing her state.

"I haven't got proper shoes." She gestured to her feet. "And that wasn't an hour, by the by."

"I have some to choose from." John relented, heading for the door.

She put her hands into her pockets, feeling the disk as he led the way back into the hanger. She didn't really look over the shoes in the locker, just grabbed the first set that looked her smaller – black boots without heels, though from the fact they came just above her knee they were clearly feminine. She meant to make comment on his presumptuousness, but wasn't in the mood as she climbed into the jumpship.

Eve watched the seat strap snake down over her chest, forming an X across her body and securing her in as John started the vehicle to life. It rumbled underneath her like a living thing, and she tried not to grip tight to anything as there came the shudder of takeoff. She distracted herself by looking upward, watching as the roof split apart into two halves, opening to a sea of stars. It would have been beautiful, if it weren't so lonely.

_I don't_ _have any family any more either._ She thought, touching the disk again. She had forgotten her birthday.

"John… what's your name?"

He was silent for a moment, the jumpship continuing to hover over a massive stretch of forest. She glanced over at him to find him frowning ahead. Slowly he looked to her. "Khan."

Offering a hand, she smiled. "I'm Evelette."

He gripped the hand, rather than shaking it. Then they both sat back, he gripped the controls, and they took off - hurtling toward destruction.


	8. Chapter 7: An Act of Terror

It didn't take long to reach San Fransico, though a majority of the trip was over water. It was strange, to be surrounded by nothing but open ocean, the sky and the sea identical in colour so it was impossible to tell where one began and the other disappeared.

They didn't talk, though John - no, Khan she corrected herself - clearly found little challenge in the aircraft and Evelette had nothing to do. After a while she pulled out the disk, turning it between her two index fingers, deliberately not thinking. It was oddly simply, to just observe and not analyze.

The only thing she felt safe considering was his name, rolling it over in her mind. It wasn't a well used name any longer - especially not for humans. She could vaguely remember a Khan somewhere in history, a barbarian capable of anything... But he'd been turned back to his homeland simply by a single conversation with a Pope. Or was that a Hun?

She fixed her attention on the present as they plunged into lights and life again,

working down the panic rising in her chest as adrenaline picked up through her body. She hadn't seen Starfleet command since she'd thrown her emblem away, even this year her resignation was done on the station.

Starfleet wasn't a place she remembered fondly, though she'd had good moments there. She wasn't much for friends, so beyond excelling in studies the only memory she recalled fondly of the building was when she found out she'd been special requested to the SS Montana.

Gods she'd been eager to go into space. More the fool her.

"Last chance to change your mind. We'll both be seen at Starfleet - they'll have enough evidence to convict you, if you ever reach a hearing."

"Stop trying to get rid of me and lets get this done." She put the disk away, magnetic squares in a zipper like pattern snapping together to seal the pocket. "We're going to Marcus' office? Will he be there this late?"

"Not his office. Emergency conference room." Khan slowed the jumpship significantly as they melded into the city, bending a weaving to comply with the aerial chart on the ship's display.

"Emergency?" She lifted a brow. "Have you been attacking people?"

"Mostly guilty parties. I need my weapons." He nodded to the bag on the floor. "The London Archives covered a weapons facility. It exploded a few hours ago."

"Hence the dust." She said more to herself than to him. "But if they're having a conference about a bombing-"

"All the captains and commanding officers will be gathered in a single room. A strategic error, one they won't think to rectify."

"Cripple the chain of command, weaken the forces that will come after us." There was that chilling logic of his again. "Smart."

"Thank you." He was... Excited. As disturbing as it was, how could she blame him? Vengeance was his way of honouring the fallen, and killing the captains and commanders was as close a parallel as Khan could draw to the destruction of his crew.

She looked to the guns mounted to the tips of the wings, trying to gauge how much damage a shot from one of them could do to the human body. Catastrophic, certainly, but whether or not it was a quick death would depend on where the shot landed. And if it hit a limb... Survival would be possible.

"You're not going to have to fire." Khan guessed where her mind was going. "The jumpship will do it automatically, locking onto heat signatures."

"So there's less guarantee Marcus will be hit." She said, voice a little sharper than she intended.

"No matter who dies, Marcus is hit." Khan shrugged, pulling off the main flight pattern and flipping a switch as the display attempted to plot a new course to lead them to the hangers. It shut off, and the cockpit grew a little blacker. She took a deep breath as she flew toward the two cylindrical buildings, attached by thin platforms.

They moved close to the window, the jumpship reflected in the glass. She saw shapes scrambling beyond the windows, but then they were headed upward, slowly. They came to a stop finally mid-way up, and her fingernails bit into the seat as she saw a single figure standing, the room cast in the red glow of the jumpship's front lights. The ship let out a high pitched whine as the turrets came to life, casting green rays.

_My Hero Aunty_.

The room exploded, shards of glass spraying in all directions as the turrets shattered the windows, locking on and dropping the faceless forms in the room. The tables turned over, and the smarter among the figures got behind them. Some attempted to run. Most fell in a streak of green.

She couldn't hear the chaos from inside the aircraft, and it made for a strangely out of body experience. Perfect serenity in the face of decimation.

Only Eve wasn't calm. Perhaps it was Khan's influence that made her see so clearly that Marcus' death was just, but actually watching innocent life burnt out…

She didn't realize she was holding her breath until a shot pinged off her window. Flinching, she shrunk back as more ricocheted off harmlessly. She looked beyond, watching a man lower a phaser rifle.

There was too much distance between the man and her to make out many distinctive features. Blond hair, average height, Starfleet first officer uniform – but in the way one does, she knew when their eyes met.

Eve lifted a hand to the glass. She wanted to call out to him, to have him hear her. She needed to apologise for unleashing this hell, for whatever more was coming. But there weren't words for this kind of sin. And what point was there in apologising when she knew there was more to be done?

He left, dropping his gun, running to the wall and opening an emergency locker. He grabbed the fire hose, pulling it out wildly hand flying over hand. Eve narrowed her eyes, trying to see what he was doing. Fire hoses had a great deal of water pressure, but it was nothing compared to the power of a jumpship.

Then he began wrapping it around the gun.

"Khan?" Eve turned to her companion. He ignored her, mind utterly absorbed in the carnage as he jerked the controls to the side, the ship swerving out of the path of a light grade explosive fired at the hull. He swirved them back, raining fire down on the already obliterated room.

There was a loud crack from under their feet, deep within the machinery. Eve lifted her head, and saw the hose stretching from the wall to underneath the ship, running at a pace that was causing smoke to puff out of the wall. And then it stopped, the wall cracked, and the man dived to the side to avoid the emergency locker.

"Khan!" She screamed as the locker flew under the ship, sucked up into the engine through the air intake port. The back shook, and the ship pitched downward at an unnatural angel sending the tail spinning in circles as he tried to keep them up. Eve gripped whatever she could get her hands on, insides turning with the ship making her want to vomit.

"Grab the bag. Evelette take the bag at your feet."

His voice was so unaffected, even in the midst of crashing. She swung her arms forward, snatching up one of the straps and dragging the bag up to hug against her chest. She shut her eyes, trying to push out any sort of sensation from her mind. She heard the high pitched singing noise before she felt her body changing, and she opened her eyes to find streaks of gold circling her. Khan hit the seatbelt release as she flung forward.

But when she should have hit the dash, it took longer before she hit something solid, the bag landing first as the insides crushed against her chest knocking her breath out of her chest. She wheezed, her bruised side flaring up in protest as she rolled off the bag and onto gritty earth.

"Evelette, are you injured?"

She complained noisily as she was turned over. He was leaning over her, hands darting over her checking bones. The pinching was particularly unpleasant on her damaged side.

"Stop." She tried to push his hands off, though he ignored her until he was certain she was in one piece. She glared at him as he sat back on his heels. Her view of him was slightly obstructed by bits of black debris snapping through the air. "I said stop."

"I needed to check if you were injured." He said unapologetically. But there was a fringe of panic to the way he continued to look at her. "You're alarmingly fragile."

"Like a flower." She gripped her side as she sat up, making an effort not to groan. She coughed as she inhaled a piece of the black, spitting it out quickly. She tugged up the scarf. "Where are we?"

"Qo'noS." Khan leaned forward, pulling the hood up over her head. "Are you capable of moving? We can't afford to linger."

"I'll be fine." She made sure to stand on her own, though she let him pick up the bag after he pulled his own hood. "We aren't going to try and make friends with any Klingons are we?"

"Your racism is astounding, but no." Khan scanned the apocalyptic looking world – all blacks and bruised yellows, rocky earth and grime patterned abandoned architecture. He led the way onward as thunder cracked overhead to the flash of lightning in the distance.


	9. Chapter 8: Purgatory

Moving with a severely damages side was unpleasant. Trekking through the Qo'noS industrialized version of the outback with a quiet three hundred year old terrorist and a bag full of high tec weaponry after opening fire on a room full of innocent people to hurt one monster… she swore they walked for days. Eve didn't complain, though whether it was out of reluctance to look frail or because she deserved the torment she wasn't sure.

Now and again Khan would stop, disappear into a crack between the walls a few minutes, then reappear and move on. She surrendered her accommodations to his choice – she had no idea what passed for a suitable hide out.

But with only the wind shrieking in her ears for conversation, she was left to brood. The one man with the gun, the only one who'd managed to take them down, he lingered in the forefront of her thoughts. How many of his friends had she helped murder today?

He would be coming after them. She wasn't exactly sure how she knew, but she did. That moment of locked eyes, when he should have taken his opportunity to run down the hall and be gone into safety. He brought the fight to them instead.

_He'll be the one that finds us_. She thought as Khan came out of another hole then continued to trudge. _Soon, if Marcus is alive. What wouldn't Marcus do, to see us both dead?_

She couldn't stand the quiet any longer, so instead of continuing to trail behind her sped up to meet his stride. He glanced her way, making no comment.

_Fine. I'll start_.

"So, care to explain to the class what we're looking for?"

Khan frowned, scanning around.

Eve sighed. "It's an expression."

"Yes I know. We shouldn't be making noise."

"Well tell me or I'll scream."

"You'll scream if the Klingons feed you your entrails. Do you have any idea what they'd do if they caught you? No fighting skill, intelligent mind but not geared towards their needs, and fairly attractive. They'd kill you slowly for the pleasure of it."

"I'm starting to forget why I agreed to road trip with you, you know that?" Still she pulled her hood a little further down. "So?"

"So?"

"What are we looking for?"

"A defensible all but unnoticeable area for you to rest in while I tap into Star Fleet communications and see how our friend is getting on."

"Oh. You don't sleep do you?"

"Not overly much, no."

"Are you trying to suggest I sleep too much?"

He rolled his eyes. "Does antagonising me make you less uncomfortable about what you've just done, Evelette?"

Harsh but fair. She didn't answer, and he got the silence he desired. The next place he checked, he returned and gestured for her to follow. She had to turn and shuffle to squeeze between a pair of massive stretching walls, so she managed to catch up to him as he struggled to get through.

"Move it or lose it, small fry." She nudged him with her shoulder.

He stopped, turning to look down at her. There was no smile on his face, she could make that out though it was dark between the walls. "Are you certain your right arm isn't broken, it seemed rather tender, perhaps I should check again."

"No!" She squeaked, sliding back out of reach. She heard his chuckle from gloom, and he continued to shuffle inward. She leaned forward, pressing her forehead to one of the walls.

_He has murdered more people than you've saved._ A small voice whispered inside her. _Other people's Lacy's. He doesn't mind killing every member of Starfleet – he probably plans to. He doesn't care about anything anymore… or at least not anyone._

She continued on, an orange glow igniting in the distance. As she came out from the tight space, she found herself in a tiny cavern. It was more of an alcove really – no more than four meters long and two meters wide. The rock glistened like obsidian, and had the same smooth face with sharp edges.

Khan had tossed a few hand held lights around the area, the orange liquid inside them casting the area in a strange light. He cracked the last one as she entered, tossing it to the far end.

"Home at last." She went to the farthest reach of the cave, grabbing the light and tossing it back his way, rolling to a stop as it hit his bag. She dropped onto the floor, leaning back gradually to make she sure didn't slice herself on an unseen crack. She pulled her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and putting her head to her knees.

She pulled her arms tighter as she heard him walking over. He set something down beside her then returned to the bag by the front of the cave. She lifted her head, watching as he pulled out some sort of computer and set it aside, opening up the display and beginning to put it to work. And at her side, a small box labeled in basic print RATIONS, sitting on a folded up blanket.

It was too much. A shred of undeserved kindness amidst so much that was wrong. Self-loathing swelled up in maelstrom of memories and thoughts and disgust. She sat by and watch all those people die, promising herself that more shots would miss than hit. As if some of the members of the meeting living excused the harsh slaughter of the ones who didn't.

Was this how Marcus felt, in the quiet hours with his towering office full of metals and reminders of his atrocities? Or did he truly think that because his ultimate goal of protecting Starfleet was just, that all the steps along the way didn't matter?

She was both men – Khan and Marcus. She knowingly murdered, helped to make it efficient, but for a right cause. The guilt was the only thing that belongs to her alone.

Eve moved forward, crawling over to one of the lights and grabbing it, getting to her feet. Khan didn't look up from his work, and she was careful to move slowly in an indirect pattern as she made a sweep of the cave. And then she was by the entrance, where the air still managed to spit small flakes of black to gather on the ground.

And then she slipped through. He didn't notice not immediately, and by then she was out of arms reach.

"Evelette what are you doing?" He called as she sped up, squirming against the enclosed space. He sounded annoyed. "Don't go out there."

She ignored him, smirking with an undefinable satisfaction as he began to fit himself back in. She burst out back into the wind and murk, running in the first direction she managed to align herself to. She darted through the rows of square structures, wind snatching at her clothes tugging her in different directions. It was getting stronger now. She had no idea what a storm on Quo'noS would be like, but part of her wanted to find out.

Taking every sporadic turn she could think of, she kept going until she thought there was a chance she was free of him. And then she began screaming. Not words, really, though occasionally some came out amidst the senseless noise. All she needed was to be loud – to draw anything in the area toward her faster than he could reach her.

And then something slammed so hard into her stomach it took her legs out from under her, slamming onto the dirt. She coughed, rolling onto her side into a ball. She half expected blood to come up, but of course the kick he'd delivered was geared for silencing on a more temporary basis.

Eve groaned, but then he was grabbing her by the collar and dragging her to her feet. She gasped as he threw her against one of the stone walls. He seized her by the throat, snarling, "Are you completely insane?"

She laughed, cackled really. Now she was bleeding, her face having made acquaintance with the wall first. "Are you going to threaten to kill me? Oh gods would you? I don't think you would… you're not kind enough to do that."

Khan released her throat, watching as she dropped to the ground, gripping her head. "It's too much. I thought I could do it, but I can't. I can't watch you kill people, Khan, I won't. Not good people, ones who haven't done anything wrong."

"They were his friends." He dropped down to his knees, grabbing her wrists. She tried to fight him but he pulled her hands free. She cried out as he pressed his thumbs into her palms, pain forking through her nerves. "Do you feel that?"

"Yes!"

"And does it hurt?"

"Yes!"

"Good, now listen closely." He grabbed her face, forcing her to look at him. "The people in that room were the ones capable of hunting us down, of saving Marcus from us. They might have been good people but they were ignorant and for that there is no excuse. They are purposefully naive, blinding themselves so they can rest comfortable in their expensive homes and dine in exotic restaurants to satisfy their gluttony. Humanity has not changed – there are the helpless, the corrupt, and then there are the precious few that are something more. Getting yourself tortured and brutalized doesn't change the fact that you can see what needs to be done. Now do you wish to find that virus or not?"

"Yes." She murmured.

He sighed, loosening his hold on her. He moved one of his hands off, the other going to her chin and tipping her face up. "We should seal that before anything infects it."

"Why don't you just leave me?" She pushed his hand away, tugging the scarf back over her mouth and getting to her feet slowly.

"I'm responsible for you now." He grunted, watching her clutch her side. "Come on. You need to eat and rest… No more running."

"Yes sir." She muttered, but she followed him back to the cave, the orange light forgotten behind them on the ground, glowing in the ugly storm.


	10. Chapter 9: Shelter

**Oh the apologies I owe! Guys, gals, I am so sorry for dropping off the face of the universe. I've been going through some stuff, tends to mess with the creative flow, but it's been days. Again, SO sorry. Therefore, have some compensation for the missed days - a dash of flare. (Hope it makes up for the absence at least a touch) **

Khan made Eve go in first, and though it was pointless she didn't begrudge him his reasoning. She wouldn't be giving suicide by Klingon another attempt. There were easier ways to hate herself than on the torture table.

Lowering her hood, she picked up the ration box as she retreated to her corner of the cave. She pulled the blanket around her shoulder as she sat down, settling in.

The meal was lacking, though not as unpleasant as she expected. She polished off the entire thing, nearly resulting in a reverse of path for the food as her stomach churned at the sudden attack of solids.

That raised a question in her mind. "When you infected me... how many days was I out for?"

"Ten." He was still standing by the door, arms folded as he watched her polish off the day's worth of survival food. "Don't leave this cave again, or I'll be far less gentle."

"Gentle." She laughed under her breath, tapping her still bleeding cheek. It really did need to get cleaned and closed – she didn't like the look of the black things in the air. "Do you have any first aid equipment?"

Satisfied she understood his message, he went over to the bag and tugged out a silver box, walking over and settling down in front of her, flipping the latches on the case and pushing back the top to reveal a small kit.

"I'm a lot more qualified for that." She held out her hand. "Give it here."

"There's no mirror, you'll miss something." He let her hand hang in the air neglected, plucking up a silver packet and tear it open, taking out the sanitation solution pad, tugging her face to the side to expose her cheek. She breathed in sharply as he pressed the freezing cloth to her cheek, the cold not enough to blunt the pain of the solution.

"Sit still." He shook his head. "You don't make much of a patient, do you?"

"Funny." She said sarcastically as he pulled out a palm sized silver spray canister; sealant for the cut. She sat impatiently as he dosed the cut, waiting the few minutes for the spray to solidify into a hardened clear coat over the gash. "I don't think I've ever been tossed around by a guy and then patched up by him within the window of an hour."

"It's a habit for you to be thrown around by men is it?"

"No." She looked at him meaningfully. "And it doesn't happen again, are we clear? If you hit me, I'm gone. I'll go, and you won't see me again."

"You think there's a place you could go that I would not be able to track you down?" He challenged, the cave noticeably still.

"Well, I think it would be harder for you to follow me into the next life than most people think."

"You aren't weak enough to kill yourself."

"Suicide has been viewed as graceful and honorable by many cultures. A revival of honour."

"Concerned for your honor, are you?"

"No. I have none, I've accepted that."

"There's a serious flaw in your logic: you can hurt yourself, but I cannot?"

"The point is that what happens to me is my choice. If we're seriously doing this – if you want my help to take Starfleet down, then you need to show me respect. I may not have your strength, or your advancements, but I'm damn smart and plenty capable of making my own decisions. No more guiding me by the hand, chauvinistic imperialistic self-entitled bullshit. You need me, you can afford to treat me like an adult."

His brows furrowed as he considered that. Eve sighed, standing and walking over to his computer. He followed as she settled beside it, Eve peering down at the tablet and then the display. There was a constant stream of words and numbers flowing up the screen. "What is this showing us?"

"Encrypted communications records of high ranking Starfleet members." He touched the tablet, placing his hand into a dip she hadn't noticed before. The words on the screen halted, and then from the top left corner working its way right and down a line started to change the information to coherent sentences. He turned his hand, and the screen began separating the messages, logging them under a series of names.

"It's programed to your handprint." Eve shuffled closer to get a better look, tugging the blanket closer around her body.

He tapped a button on the display, and the screen went green. He twisted his hand, pressing his fingers deeper into the gel of the tablet. "Give me your hand."

She let him take her hand, and place it into the hollow. It was warm, and had a pleasantly pliable feel. It lit up red under her fingers, turning her skin orange. She flinched, nut his hand over her own kept he from moving it.

"It's alright." He promised her, watching the display as he began to show a copy of her handprint. The red light went out, and the screen flashed blue then returned to the list of Starfleet officials. He allowed her to take her hand back. "Your hand and mine are the only ones capable of making this work now. If we ever get separated, check under Odysseus Kane, I'll leave you coordinates of where to meet."

"Trust exercise, huh?" She flexed her fingers, recoiling further into blanket. "So, have they been talking about our exploits?"

"A great deal, naturally. The news is having a delightful time with you – Terrorist or Terrified, Earth renowned neurologist Doctor Evelette Swan confirmed as seen with the infamous John Harrison, suspect in the bombing of the Kelvin Memorial Archive," he said, clearly having read it somewhere. "No one seems able to decide if you're a victim or criminal."

"No one but Marcus," she guessed, reaching over and tapping on the tab labeled 'Alexander Marcus'. She pushed the first conversation bullet that caught her eye – the only one in red while the others were are green. There were thousands over the last few hours alone.

"Doctor Swan…" She murmured, leaning forward as she realized the message was for her – sent to her communicator but not yet listened to.

_Doctor Swan, what the hell do are you playing at? We've searched your apartment, and your association with your patient has not gone unnoticed. We have several witnesses placing you leaving your facility with him. Eventually, I'll have the proof I need to end you, and when it's in hand I will hunt you down myself. _

_Harrison isn't the one to fear, doctor. _

_I am._

"He has a very high opinion of himself doesn't he?" She noted, closing the conversation quickly.

"If you had any doubts that our cause is just…" Khan opened up Marcus' latest message – an enquiry into the state of the weapons salvaged from London.

"Can you teach me to shoot properly?" She blurted impulsively, flushing as he raised an eyebrow at her. "For when I have a stun capable phaser."

"I don't think you have an aptitude for weapons."

"Well teach me how to defend myself then – hand to hand combat." She tried her most inviting smile. "It's going to come in handy – especially if us getting separated is a possibility. Eventually Starfleet is going to come looking for us, and my being unable to defend myself will slow you down."

"I thought I was not meant to hit you again." He pointed out with dry amusement.

"Well don't actually attack me." She bleated. "Just practice!"

"Half your body is bruised, can you even move?"

"Consider my bruising an incentive to learn quickly."

He shook his head, smirking slightly. "Go to sleep, Evelette."

"I had ten days of sleep." She complained, pushing the blanket off and standing expectantly. "Come of tough guy, let's see what you've got."

When he continued to read, she nudged him with her foot. Unsatisfied with the mild noise of discouragement he made, she swung her leg over his shoulder, intending to shut the screen with her foot.

He snatched her ankle mid swing, fingers curling round her ankle. She gasped, swaying precariously as she was forced to balance on one foot. He got to his feet, not releasing her and forcing her to struggle to keep upright. Then he tugged her leg sharply, pulling it passed his right side as she fell towards him. He kicked out her other leg, arms snaking around her torso as she fell toward the floor, carrying her weight as the fall instantly turned into a simple lowering.

Khan placed her gently on the floor, her heart crushing against her chest as it beat rapidly, her hair draped around her head like a fire storm. She was breathing shallowly, acutely aware of his arm that was still around her waist, the other supporting his body weight through forearm by her head. He was pressed against her, so close she felt the cold trickle over her skin as he breathed out. He leaned his head to one side, taking in her face as she flushed.

For just an instant, she wanted more than anything to lean forward and kiss him.

"Go to sleep, Eve." He said softly, and then he slid off her, picking up the blanket as she sat up, moving forward to pull it around her. She touched his hand as he went to move away, holding his gaze. Then she released him, shuffling over so her head was near the computer but her back was to him as he began working again.

It was the first time she took genuine comfort in being close to him.


	11. Chapter 10: Enterprise

The sound of static was what in the end woke her, hissing above her head. Eve sat up wearily, body aching from sleeping on the unyielding floor and just the general battery. She groaned, rubbing her face. "Anything interesting?"

When there was no answer she turned, a chill creeping over her skin as she realized she was alone. Quickly she got to her feet, tossing the blanket aside and scrambling in front of the computer, placing her hand onto the tablet and watching as the information sorted itself. She tried scanning for the name Odysseus, but before she could find it the static turned to a high pitched wail, digging into her ears.

"Gah!" She wheeled back, gripping her ears. Then it cut short, and there came a dead tone voice from the computer speakers.

"Attention John Harrison, this is Captain Hikaru Sulu of the U.S.S. Enterprise. A shuttle of highly trained officers is on its way to your location. If you do not surrender to them immediately, I will unleash the entire payload of advanced torpedoes locked onto your location. You have two minutes to confirm your compliance. Refusal to do so will result in your obliteration. If you test me… you will fail."

The com dropped, leaving her alone in the hush of the cave. It took her mind approximately half a minute to comprehend what she'd just received… Starfleet with torpedoes? What was any ship not manned by Marcus doing with _torpedoes_?

_Two minutes_.

"John!" She screamed, fear driving her back to habit. She crawled over to the bag, picking up the smallest phaser she could find then launching herself into the crevice, squirming her way out into the howling wind. She cursed as she was hit face first with a cloud of black powder, scarf and hood still down. She wheezed, yanking both up and squinting to try and make out anything in the murk. "K-Khan? Khan!"

She stopped short of another scream as she saw a tall shape ahead in the vortex of black and orange, dark and broad. It moved towards her at a gradual pace, hands at its sides. And then it got close enough for her to see armour, and a helmet which concealed the face with a strange ridge up the center.

Klingon armour.

Unthinking, she lifted the phaser, pointing it at the Klingon. It turned its head to one side, making a low garbled noise. She didn't speak their language, but she knew it at once. She took a few steps back towards the crevice, certain that the alien's size wouldn't permit it to follow her. But then it would have her trapped, and be positioned to jump Khan when he returned.

Not to mention the less than a minute she had before she was turned into radioactive dust.

Before she could make a choice, out of the distance there came a rain of red phaser fire. The Klingon roared, trying to charge her, but it was forced to the ground before it made half the distance between them.

Eve didn't realize she was panting until Khan seized her arm, tugging her back inside. "We need to move. Now. They found the light."

"S-Starfleet." She stuttered as she was yanked back into the cave, stumbling slightly. He froze, watching her trying to contain her sheer terror. "The U.S.S. Enterprise is here. They have torpedoes th-they're going to fire on us unless we submit to a landing party."

He dropped the heavy artillery phaser he'd been carrying, striding over and grabbing her by the shoulders. "Evelette are you certain he said torpedoes? Evelette!" He shook her when she didn't respond.

She nodded quickly. "The message came through the computer. Advanced he said… but it wasn't Marcus… Did you make them?"

Khan took a step back, momentarily overwhelmed. It was strange, seeing this sudden reversal in his face. Hope, genuine hope. "Where is the landing party?"

"He said they were coming to our location. But we need to-"

"If it isn't Marcus, he won't fire torpedoes at his own men. We need to move – Klingons are swarming the area, the can't beat us to these people. When we reach them, you need to pretend I took you hostage. Then we'll find a way to get you to the torpedoes."

"Me?" She shook her head, watching as he rushed about the cave grabbing phasers and throwing aside anything not weaponized. "What am I going to do with them?"

"Open them up." He grinned. "Eve – those weapons contain my crew. Marcus intended for that starship to fire them on us, destroying me with my own people. But if you can release even a handful, we can take over that ship. Imagine – all we'd have to do to destroy your virus is open fire on that miniscule base."

"And how exactly do I open them?"

"I can tempt the crew to open one up – all you'll have to do is wake whoever is inside up, and then they can do the rest." He assured her, grabbing the most massive phaser she'd ever seen, and throwing her a phaser rifle. She caught it, but not gracefully.

Seeing her looking down sheepishly at the gun, he set his own aside and walked over to her. She raised a brow leerily as he touched her cheek. "You are fully capable of doing this, I have no doubt. I'll be watching over you the whole way as you run ahead, no one will harm you. And when you get on the ship, it will only be a matter of getting to the medical bay."

"And when your people are awake?" She challenged. "What do you imagine is going to differentiate me from the crew of that ship?"

"They will listen to me." He said firmly. "They will not harm you whilst you are under my protection."

She pushed the rifle back against his chest. "A hostage wouldn't be carrying this."

"Fine." He let go of her and tossed it aside. "We should move."

"Agreed." She said grimly, fixing her coverage to make sure she wouldn't loose it while running. She placed a hand on the sharp black rock, looking back at him. "How do we know where to find these people?"

"Go left, follow the bottom of the hillside. It will lead down into the industrial sector – that's where the Klingon's have been flying to. Someone must be there."

_Someone, and an army of murderous warriors_. She thought, but all the same she went out, jogging to the left until she found the bottom of a sheer hillside scattered with shale like rock. She began to run along the edge, keeping low and constantly scanning the area for any movement. She couldn't see Khan anywhere, but he had promised she wouldn't be alone. It was a touching sentiment, but the darker side of her brain enjoyed pointing out to her that it was just as easily a warning.

The storm was getting worse – she had to hurry into the industrial structures of risk being buried under all this ash like substance. It didn't take long for hill to turn to carved building and large Klingon sized walls forming a sort of maze. She paused on the crest of the hill overlooking the maze, keeping low as she saw what the howling wind had masked.

Four jumpships – three with stretched wings like a lurking bird of prey, hovering above a group of Klingons, and one that was almost tear drop shaped, the front circular and broad tapering toward the back ending in a sharp point. There was a woman, speaking with the Klingons – a human.

Somehow the odds of two human landing parties in Klingon territory was too unlikely. These had to be the Starfleet officers promised. She slid down the hill, grimacing as the black shale tinkled like wind chimes under her. She dropped the last six feet into the maze, gasping as the impact shocked up her legs.

She began her way, always going up three then left one. It was the best she could hope to come out at the back of the federation ship.

It would have been smarter to count them out first. As she edged around a final block, she stopped short as she found herself somewhere in the middle of the space between the Starfleet's ship and the only landed Klingon ship. She crouched low, hugging the corner of the wall as she watched the Klingon remove its helmet, exchanging growls with the woman.

Eve covered her mouth to muffle the noise that escaped her as the Klingon grabbed the woman's throat, bringing her close. He was drawing something at his side… she couldn't quite make it out.

Then fire, red phaser fire rained down on them. From the farthest reach of the room on a bridge in front of a massive yellow glassed wall stood Khan, firing off the massive phaser in one hand, a small one in his left.

The Klingons scattered, snatching up phasers and firing off streaks of acid green light as the main one dropped the woman, and she grabbed a blade from his side and drove it into his leg. Eve jerked back as a shot sheared off the side of the wall, spraying her face with chalky dust. Blue light mixed with green and red as more men came rushing out of the federation ship – but she couldn't run towards them without throwing herself into the middle of the hottest spot.

Eve turned, running towards Khan as Klingons rushed into the structures along with the humans. Everything was madness – phaser fire shrieking over her head as she ducked and dodged, keeping to the dark and trying to keep ahead.

She skidded up short as a Klingon halted in her path, swinging with the back of his fist. It cracked against her jaw, knocking her off her feet and onto her back. It lifted its phaser, but molten red punctured through its chest leaving a gaping hole in its wake. She scrambled up, snatching the Klingon phaser from where it fell and turning it about wildly, trying to find the proper placement against her arm. She fired blindly, gasping as the shot made another Klingon duck behind a block.

Faced with little decision she went left. There was a massive bloom of fire as Khan shot down one of the Klingon aircrafts, the shock wave sending her flying back against one of the tilted walls. She cursed as the phaser tumbled out of her hand, but the Klingon coming up behind her gave her no choice but to run on.

She was running full-fledged when she rammed against leathery armour coming around a corner, knocking both of them down in a tangle of noise and sharp pain.

"Roll!"

She heard the order and on basic training she did. Blue coursed through the Klingon and it went stiff, freeing her to move back against the block, gasping for breath, sucking the cloth in and out of her mouth.

"Doctor Swan?"

She turned her head slowly, looking up.

It was him. Of course it was. Startlingly blue eyes, blond short hair, dressed in civilian rough and tumble clothes, but she knew him instantly. She pushed off her hood as the officer hurried over to her, phaser at his side but still gripped. He was watching the area for Klingons – but it was clear he had no idea what to make of her.

She said the first thing to come to mind.

"Please tell me you are here to get me the hell out of here."


	12. Chapter 11: A Few Good Men

"He's going to kill all of them – we need to get out before he runs out of things to shoot." Evelette pressed, looking at officer urgently as he hurried over.

"We're here to bring Harrison in." He tucked the phaser behind him, crouching down. "Listen, my name's Jim Kirk, I'm captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. I've got a starship loitering a couple hundred thousand miles above out heads loaded with torpedoes to keep him in line. You're going to be fine, alright? I'm going to get you back home safe."

She shook her head. "Not if you take him with you."

Pity – she could see it in the way he smiled. He saw her certainty for the fear of a victim. That was good, she supposed, but a vein of guilt began winding its way around her insides making her cringe as he took her arm gently. "Hey, it's okay. I'm going to get you out of this."

Eve examined him closely. This wasn't just a man strong in his convictions… this was a good man. He wanted to help her, more than anything. And she was exploiting that goodness to help murder his entire crew. "You were there that night he attacked the meeting room." She heard her voice warble out. She was about to try and assemble some sort of apology when she saw movement from the corner of her eye. "Look out!"

She grabbed the captain's arm, pulling him as she leapt up, getting both of them out of the way as a Klingon swung down with a sort of axe like weapon, the blade spitting sparks as it tore apart the wall. Kirk fired twice before it went down then grabbed Eve. "Come on – I need you to hurry okay?"

Nodding compliantly, she followed as he began jogging down one of the rows. She was trying to keep close, dodging as shots went every which way in the multitude of colors. Paying more attention to the lines of fire than her guide, she ran into his back as he stopped unexpectedly. He moved his arm back, making sure she wouldn't move around him as he began forcing her back. "Not that way."

It took her a moment to understand what the strange little bits scattered over the dirt ahead were; limbs and slabs of flesh severed by Khan's weapons. The nausea she should have been feeling wouldn't come – the fact was that as a doctor, especially in her time under Starfleet, she had seen worse.

"Captain, I can handle it." She said quietly.

"You don't have to. This way." He led her to the right, phaser trained ahead. She flinched as he took down another Klingon. He was actually a very good shot.

Then the punch came from the left, knocking Kirk across the face and sending him flying to the right, slamming against the block and wheeling onto his back. The phaser tumbled out of his hand, but rather than going for it Kirk went for the Klingon, ducking under another swing and booting the goliath in the chest. It staggered back, he swung up, and rammed his fist into the solid plating of its helmet. He let out a curse, taking a few steps back and gripping his hand as the Klingon snarled and shouted in its language, drawing out a sword.

Eve leapt forward, snatching the phaser off the ground and firing. The blue scorched the air as it hurtled over Kirk's shoulder, hitting the Klingon in the chest. It grunted, teetering back.

Kirk grinned appreciatively. "Nice shot."

"Thanks." She murmured, touching her throat briefly. "We should hurry, while John is distracted."

"You got it, Doc." Kirk seemed to be filing information away at a rapid rate. It made her uneasy. She'd assumed going over to the Starfleet side meant less exacting analysis. Apparently not.

"Captain!" She warned, ducking to the side as two Klingons came around the corner. She heard Kirk take a swing, and a slam of a body too light to be armoured hitting the ground. She crouched, panting as she lifted the phaser up to her face.

Then red phaser fire blasted past her, and Klingons howled. She peeked around the corner, watching Kirk sit up as bits of former sentient beings scattered like confetti against the walls. The heat of the blast meant minimal blood – just plenty of roasted bits. The smell, that made her feel sick.

A flicker of fear set her skin afire as two people came to Kirk's aid as he knocked off bits of Klingon. He was looking around, trying to find her.

Everyone stopped as they saw Khan ahead.

There was an unexplainable beauty in the way Khan fought, and ever fluid series of motions. There was no pausing to think, or doubt, he simply moved. Everything was lethal efficiency, the green lights incapable of catching him as his red shots never missed, taking down soldier and jumpship alike. One Klingon got dangerously close by coming behind him. Eve realized she was about to scream and warn him, but stopped in time for him to turn round on his own, knocking the warrior's legs out and splitting a hole into its chest.

She couldn't picture a force capable of quelling that sort of indefectible skill.

"Doctor!" She realized she was being called to. She scampered out from her hiding spot, bolting down the row to where Kirk was leaning on a block, still on the ground.

She gasped, making her eyes go wide as a phaser rifle trained on her head. She dropped the much smaller gun in her hand, throwing up her hands. "Whoa – not a Klingon!"

The Vulcan on the other side of the weapon looked at her critically, but Kirk waved at him. "Put it down, Spock. The Doctor's on our side."

Eve watched closely as the man, Spock, lowered the Klingon gun, then moved close to him in order to get behind the wall. "We have to hurry – there aren't enough Klingon's here to distract him."

"We aren't leaving without him." Kirk said with an sense of finality.

She looked between the three – a Vulcan, a Starfleet captain, and the woman she'd seen speaking with the Klingons. They made for an unlikely strike force. And then he was there, right beside her like an encroaching natural disaster. Eve moved away quickly, distancing herself from Khan as he lifted his weapon at them and Spock warned "Stand down!"

Khan ignored him utterly, barking, "How many torpedoes?"

"Stand down!" Spock lifted the rifle.

Khan didn't even deign to look, firing off his own rifle and knocking the gun clear out of Spock's hands. "The torpedoes, the weapons you threatened me with in your message, how many are there?"

Kirk didn't respond, smirking at Khan as the two locked gazes. Then Khan lifted his gaze to Eve, and she shrunk back a little farther. It was Spock who spoke up. "Seventy two."

There was only a brief pause, and then Khan threw his rifle aside and held out his arms. "I surrender."

The Vulcan ducked down, grabbing Khan's rifle and aiming it at him. Eve couldn't meet Kirk's gaze as he glanced her way, continuing to stare at Khan as he waited. Kirk got to his feet, eyes narrowing. "On behalf of Christopher Pike, my friend, I accept your surrender."

Eve breathed out slowly. The way Kirk had changed, the stiffness in his body suddenly – this Pike had to have been one of the victims in the shooting. Kirk turned, then used it to enhance his swing as he punched Khan so hard square in the face that a normal man would have been leveled. Khan's head turned, but he returned it to normal position in time to take the second blow, and the third.

Kirk was breathing heavily, delivering an upper swing to Khan's stomach. He grabbed Khan's neck, using the back to force Khan down as he kneed him again and again. Eve clasped her, mouth, trying not to scream as she watched him be hit again and again. Kirk was running out of energy, but he wouldn't stop. He grabbed Khan's hair, holding his head up to punch him repeatedly.

"Stop." Eve said through her mouth. She looked to the woman and Spock, waiting for someone to speak up. She rushed forward, screaming, "Stop it! Stop!"

She grabbed Kirk's elbow as he tried to get around punch in, pulling with all her might to halt the blow. "Captain!"

He shook her off, back handing Khan but sliding, doubling over as he gasped for air, finally spent. Eve watched the two men as Kirk stood slowly, Khan's expression turning to one of sickly delight.

"Captain." He said, as though Kirk ought to be humiliated.

Kirk moved passed Eve, his face contorted by barely sealed anger. "Cuff him."

Eve and Khan met eyes for a moment, and he gave her that same look. "Doctor Swann."

"I hope you die screaming." She said venomously, and then she followed Kirk towards the jumpship as Spock moved forward to place the restrains on the Enterprise's new captive.


	13. Chapter 12: The Perks of Insanity

**I think you should all know, or I should say again because you've earned it, your reviews make my day. Seriously, readers, you guys are a better audience than a writer could ever ask for. SharkGurl, dgames, Paper-Knights, Lovely Rain Dancer, DanAlaya, ScornedxRose, TimeLady945, oh gosh there's too many to name but every single one of you guys who take time out of your day to let me know how you feel, your phenomenal people and you make writing this so worthwhile. I love reading to see perdictions of where this is all headed, and hearing I'm not the only one invested in Eve's future. Also, a very special thank you to ShimmeringWater, because there's nothing harder than being the one to issue constructive criticism, and it was something I so totally agreed with. Gotta say, doing Eve in that situation and not destroying her and Khan's trust was really tough, and your comment helped me figure out how to proceed. Hope the chapter afterward cleared up your reservations about how Eve was reacting. So, as I continue munching my virtual cookies (Mmm, so tasty), for all you fantastic readers, here's Evelette Enterpriseing. **

There were two discarded red uniforms sitting in the back of the jumpship as Eve came aboard, second on after Kirk who went immediately to the front controls, starting up the engines. "This way." A female voice said behind her, and she blinked as the woman touched her elbow, gesturing for her to enter the control room.

Eve paused at the entrance to the circular area, watching Khan as he came onto the ship, hands sealed in thick metal keeping his hands folded over each other. Spock was last, still pointing the rifle at Khan as he shepherded him into the back, forcing him into one of the seats. The woman went to help strap Khan in so Spock didn't have to lower the weapon.

Taking the chance, Eve went over to Kirk. He was still breathing hard, eyes burning with the alertness that came with all energy going towards controlling one's self. She put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently before she went to one of the seats, settling herself into it and examining the communications controls.

It wasn't a long flight, considering the type of distance they covered. Eve unlocked her safety belt as they entered space, gripping the seat but shifting forward to get a better look as they came upon the leviathan.

The U.S.S. Enterprise, newest ship in the fleet and home to thousands of lives. She tried to calculate how many people a craft of that size would contain, but she couldn't remember the exact figures any longer.

It would tip her own scales, however. She had saved half a starship's worth of people during her service, a couple hundred more in the clinic… but Khan's plan insured she'd be responsible for the deaths of an entire crew.

She shut her eyes as they entered the hanger deck, shrinking into her seat as the woman spoke with the voice that had alerted her to the torpedos. He sounded so much less severe now, welcoming them back. Of course, there was the mention of the men he was sending down to escort 'Harrison' to the brig, but his evident relief at the success of the mission still made it all sound so harmless.

Eve remained seated as the latches of the door undid, the airtight seal giving out to lower the ramp. She could hear phasers charging, her eyelids lifting though she couldn't bear to watch Khan stride into the sea of red shirts waiting to take him back into captivity.

"Doctor?"

She looked up a Kirk, instantly realizing that her hands were shaking. She gripped them together, trying to hide the tremor. He offered his own, helping her up. "Come on, let's get you patched up."

Keeping her hands in her pockets, she stepped out of the jumpship and onto the deck of the Enterprise. She could see Khan, already ahead as the security team hurried to get him secured.

"I need to get him locked up. Lieutenant Uhura here is going to take you to the med bay, alright?" Kirk spoke slowly, making her wonder if the fact that she was utterly in over her head was showing as frailty to him.

Either way, she would be glad to have him at a distance.

"Yes, thank you Captain."

Uhura gave her a warm smile, which Eve returned regretfully. She looked away as Kirk gave her more orders, beginning to understand the gravity of what she was meant to be doing here. It was made a great deal worse as she watched Uhura go up on tiptoes, giving Spock a quick kiss before addressing Eve. "Let's get you to Medical Bay. I'm sure you're exhausted."

Thankfully that was about the extent of their dialogue. Uhura didn't attempt to press her for information on her time with Khan, or thrust any instruction on her as to what different sections of the ship were and who was in command of what. By the time they reached medical, the smell of plastic gloves and sanitization fumes was so welcome it almost broke her down completely.

"Why don't you take a seat over here?" Uhura guided her to one of the series of white cots, not unlike the one she'd first placed Khan on almost a year ago. Eve sat down numbly, not able to summon a thank you, though Uhura didn't seem to be looking for one as he went off to fetch one of the women in blue shirts attending to minorly injured crew further down the line. Eve focused on the nearest patient, watching a man squirming as a major burn was attended to on his arm.

"Issue with the warp core." A woman strode up to her with Uhura at her side, the woman's blue dress somewhat broader to support a hefty figure. She was human, with frizzy brown hair and iris' to match. She flashed a quick smile at Eve. "Hello. We had a running bet about you, you know. I read about how you saved the entirety of crew remaining on your ship though, so I won. Some knuckle head conspiracy theorists thought you'd gone to the mental side. I'm Doctor Povlati. You're free to go, Lieutenant," she added waving a hand at Uhura as she grabbed up a data pad, "We'll be fine here."

"It's fine." Eve nodded as Uhura looked to her. "Thank you."

"No problem." Uhura assured her, then in a flash she was out of the med bay, leaving Evelette to the attentions of Povlati as the woman drew a curtain out from the wall. She drew it around the clear plastic rod to give them some privacy, but also to block Eve's inspection of the wounded.

"So, about seven years since you've seen space? Not how you wanted to return I'm guessing." Povlati said without looking up from the datapad, clearly examining her medical files. "Not much in the way of bad medical history though."

"I'm not in the market for a surgery." Eve's voice came out sharper than she intended, lifting the woman's gaze. "Can you just give me the check-up? I'd like to get cleaned and start doing something before I do go crazy."

"Yes, Ma'am," Povlati didn't genuinely seem to mind, setting the electronics aside and gesturing to her clothes. "I'll need you to remove those."

Evelette shrugged out of the heavy coat, setting it aside though keeping it close all the same. She tugged off the gloves, and upon prompting she began pulling the shirt off, but she stopped as Povlati breathed in sharply.

Not wanting to face it, Eve had made a point of not inspecting her side after the surgery clash. All along her right was a ugly purple fringed in red, scattered in different splotches, some following the lines of her ribs and more on her hips, disappearing under the pants. She'd noticed some of it while changing, but she'd been in such a hurry and the room was darkened, she had no idea how bad it was.

And to the woman in front of her, paired up with the cut across her face and the bruise she was certain the Klingon had left, she must have looked like a poster image for physical abuse. She pulled the shirt off the rest of the way, carful not the meet Povlati's stare. She didn't both taking off the leggings, but she pushed the boots off her feet and let them drop to the floor. "Ready."

She was taken aback when the other woman gripped her hand, squeezing tight enough to nearly crack it. There was so much pity in her face – sudden remorse for the chatter before.

Good people were so much easier to fool than they should have been.

Povlati plucked up a scanner from one of the drawers of the bed's assigned cabinet, moving behind Eve to begin looking over her skeleton looking for cracks or breaks, simultaneously looking for organ damage. She took a blood sample, cleaned off the solution from her cut and then the rest of her face. It was oddly comforting, to be taken care of in this way. With Khan it was always so much more surprising, she never got to really appreciate it.

The doctor sealed up the cut with high tension adhesive strips, small white bandage like material that worked like stiches without the needle and thread. She cleaned up a couple other minor scrapes Eve had collected along the way, then rubbed a cooling numbing solution along Eve's side and front where landing on the weapons had left marks.

"All done, Ma'am." Povlati said quietly. She helped Eve put the shirt back on, then disappeared through the curtain leaving her to wiggle back on the boots and gather up her gloves and jacket. When she returned, Povlati checked to make sure she was ready before drawing back the curtain. Eve noticed she had a blue dress folded up under her arm and a set of boots. "Alright, I'm going to take you to the showers, then once you're done I'll bring you to your quarters."

"I suppose that's for me." Eve jerked her chin towards the cloth bundle, eyeing it skeptically.

"We don't have much in the way of stylistic options." Povlati said apologetically, throwing in a touch of humor to try and make her feel better. "Shall we?"

There are few pleasures quiet as profound as a shower after a long absence from hygienic supplies. Amidst of the spray of deliciously hot water and the mist of vapours, everything dropped away for and the first time since the call came in on her communicator, she felt like herself again. When she shut her eyes, she could pretend she was back at home in her own bathroom, just off a very long, very rugged shift. Each stall even had its own shampoo and conditioner. Civilization at last.

She dried off with one of the towels in the stack by the front of the showers, then grudgingly slid into the little blue dress. It felt far stranger than the clothes Khan had given her, and after a long moment of contemplation, she grabbed her boots and returned to the shower, soaking the towel and cleaning them off, grabbing the pair of socks from the new boots but putting on Khan's shoes.

It made her feel at least a little more like her, and that wasn't an easy thing to accept.

But it reminder her, and quickly she snatched up the jacket, bringing out the disk. There was a long scratch running over the surface, but as she tapped the circle her niece appeared again, though now slightly static flecked. Eve shut it off before Lacy could begin talking and dissolve her into hysterics.

Povlati was waiting outside, leaning on the wall though she stood straight as Eve returned. She was about to speak, then stopped as she noticed the boots. She seemed to want to say something, then thought better of it. "Your quarters are this way."

She waited until they had started walking to go on. "Now, just so your aware, there is going to be someone posted outside your door, and you get a private room. You're not a prisoner, they won't follow you around or anything unless you want them to, it's just so that you feel safe in your room. Officially you're wanted for questioning since no one was able to decipher whether John Harrison had kidnaped you, but I'm more than happy to vouch for the damage that… monster did to you."

"I promise not to start screaming and attempt to throttle Captain Kirk in retaliation." Eve said mockingly, but the truth was it made her uneasy all the same. Povlati laughed and stopped as they came to a door with a large man in a red shirt posted out front. "Doctor Swan, this is Lieutenant Jameson. He'll be your door guard."

"Doctor."

The man offered his hand, and Eve shook it. "Sorry to be such a trouble."

"No trouble at all." His mannerisms said otherwise.

"Alright, I better get back to medical bay, but as soon as your feeling able I'm sure we can find something for you to do." Povlati dragged her attention away. "I know work sometimes helps get my mind off other things."

"I'll probably be knocking on your door very soon." Eve chuckled uneasily. "Thanks for being my tour guide."

"Not a problem – the Lieutenant can help you find medical bay if you need. Although as your Doctor, I recommend a very good rest. You've earned a day off." Povlati nodded goodbye, then went back the way they'd come. Before she could get twitchy, Eve moved forward through the sliding open doors, tugging her jacket and shirt close to her chest.

She didn't let out her breath until the door shut behind her, isolating her in a small room with a bed built into the far wall, all white with a light in the center of the ceiling. There was a mirror, encompassed by a line in the wall which hinted to a locker, but no furniture. Not a cell, but not exactly the royal suite. Eve put down the only belongings she had for the moment on the bed, crawling into the little alcove and curling up on the bed. It was the first time in almost two weeks she hadn't slept with Khan nearby.

Where was he on the ship? Everyone she'd met thought he was some vicious tormentor, but the opposite felt true now. Without him, she was vulnerable.

She didn't cry – for him, for what he'd think, she didn't allow herself to cry – but she pulled out the disk and placed it on the pillow next to her face.

There was too much time to think in a room like that. She tucked the disk under pillow, stashed the jacket and shirt under her mattress, and then took a minute to organize herself. She went over and pressed the mirror, snatching up a brush gratefully. Luckily it took some time, her ringlets and knots versus the buildup of tangled mess two weeks could accumulate. She shook it out, forcing it to dry faster though muttering death threats to the flaming beast as the ringlets refused to desist, leaving her looking like a plastic model rather and a doctor. She trapped them into a bundle, putting her hair up in a pony she found in the locker next to dental spray.

Someone took a great deal of time balancing what to give someone who could be a prisoner or a physiologically fractured mess.

Finally, Evelette strode out of the room, facing the hulk. "Well, how about it Lieutenant? Show a girl the way to the damaged and disfigured gallery?"

He looked at her like she was the latter of the two scenarios her room prepped for. That was good – she could play crazy and broken. People didn't like being nearly strange people, especially ones who were suffering. And she couldn't let anyone here close without dooming Khan to imprisonment. Again.

So with a grunt from the incredible sulk, they started down the hall together.


	14. Chapter 13: The Groundwork

From the moment she stepped back into the medical bay, she could tell whoever was in charge had returned. There was an air of activity, nurses now moving faster on the patients they had been spending more time with before. The Lieutenant stopped beside her in the door way, the pair of them watching the hive mind that was a tight nit medical team.

"Are all the Lieutenants as chatty as you? I'm beginning to think the Enterprise has a discipline problem." Eve gave her mute attendee a somber stare. "I should speak with your captain about it."

"Ma'am."

She snorted, rolling her eyes. "And now sass. There goes your career as a prison guard."

"You're not -"

"Needing a babysitter at my age? How very masterfully deduced. Your free to go, Jameson, for now."

She waved her hand, deliberately not looking at him. Aggravating the poor man almost made her feel better, if only for the noises he made trudging out the door. She returned her attention to the room, focusing on a man who hadn't been there before handing off a vial of red viscous material to a nurse.

"I want you to start preliminary testing on this, tell me if you find anything out of the ordinary." He ordered the Andorian woman.

"Yes Sir."

The man noticed Eve standing by the door and halted mid stride, openly frowning at her. She found herself doing the same in return.

"Well, did you need something?" he said after a full minute.

That was when she remembered she was in uniform. She cleared her throat, bridging the gap as she went over and offered her hand. "Doctor Evelette Swan. It's been a while since I served on a Starfleet vessel, but I'd rather not be a waste of oxygen so I guess I'm hoping you're in need of an extra pair of hands."

He took her hand, examining her closely. "Lenard McCoy, Chief Medical Officer aboard this death trap. You're the one we rescued from Qo'noS."

"That's right. I'm also one of Earth's foremost authorities on neurology, have served as Chief Medical Officer on a federation ship, and not entirely unbearable company. I'm handy to have around… Sir."

"Well, when you sell it like that. Hopefully we aren't going to be needing more medical staff, but I suppose you can help the nurses with those burns. We had some issues down in engineering, couple guys got sautéed." McCoy pointed to the row of men and women she'd noticed earlier. "One on the end needs his checkup, how's your bedside manner?"

"Shiny." She perked up instantly, probably the wrong reaction to being invited to treat burn victims.

McCoy waved his hand. "Have at it then, data pad is on the end of the bed."

She almost squeaked with excitement, going to the data pad like a child to Christmas presents. She had to remind herself to sober up as she brought up the man's medical history, examining the latest addition explaining his successful skin graft. He'd been suffering unbelievable burns on his forearms, but the pain medication meant he wouldn't feel it if he stuck his leg in a engine at this point. He murmured incoherently as she checked to make sure all his IV line was good and all his monitors were showing healthy signs considering his state.

"Barbara." He grunted, twisting his neck and moaning, grabbing her wrist. She paused, waiting patiently for him to ease back into sedation.

"It's alright." She promised, setting aside the pad. She kept her voice soothing, sliding her fingers between his and her arm. "I'm right here, Daniel."

"Barbara." He said again, but his let go and she managed to put his white bandaged arm back down on the bed lightly. She checked his arms under the bandages quickly to insure all was in order, then put on clean dressings.

She was just finishing up when she heard her name. She glanced up from entering the latest report and found McCoy and Kirk speaking, both of them looking directly at her. She had a sudden feeling of dread as Kirk began making his way over to her. She almost dropped the data pad on the ground placing it back in its holster.

"Doctor Swan." Kirk greeted her, but she could see he wasn't there for her sake.

Eve straightened uncertainly. "You can call me Eve, Captain, I think I owe you enough for that."

"Eve, I need to talk to you." Kirk conceded.

"Yes, you do, you haven't sat down since we got here have you?" She shook her head, grabbing his arm and guiding him over to one of the free beds. She pushed him lightly, pointing at it firmly. "Sit, I watched you get your stuffing booted out by Klingons."

"I'm fine."

"Your hand is bleeding."

He lifted it to look, frowning at his knuckles which has split open against the Klingon helm. He sighed, sitting and watching her rifle through the bedside cabinet until she found a small basic kit. She set it down beside him, plucking up the disinfectant and taking his hand up to begin cleaning out the gashes. "So, what did you actually need?"

"Twenty three, seventeen, forty six, eleven."

Eve frowned, glancing up at him. "Excuse me?"

"Harrison says whatever he did all this for, I can find at those coordinates." Kirk was watching her much to closely. She couldn't breathe – for a minute she could hardly think. The exact location of the base – four digits, and she knew how to find the virus all on her own. "Eve, what is he talking about?"

She shook her head, not meeting his gaze. "You have no idea who he is, do you?"

"He's a Starfleet agent, that's all I know."

She could taste bile on the back of her tongue. "Agent." Her voice could crack stone with it's chill. "Marcus has a different memory of events than I do."

"Admiral Marcus?" Kirk frowned. "Alexander Marcus? I've read your file, he was your captain when you served in Starfleet – did you and Harrison serve together?"

"Sort of." Placing the cloth aside she grabbed a small bundle of white bandaging. "We worked to very different goals… and I wasn't a member of Starfleet when we met."

"What were you working on?"

"Captain." She stopped her bandaging. "If you're wondering why Harrison took me it's because I'm a neurologist. He had a chip in his brain, very old world science fiction, and I had to break it for him. But you're just curious about that, not enough to warrant a house call, so what exactly did he say that's got you so spooked your looking to Miss Damaged Goods for advice?"

"He said I should open one of the torpedoes Marcus gave me."

_He's starting it._

"Eve, you alright?"

"Captain -"

"Jim."

"Jim." She finished his wrapping quickly, straightening. "Open the torpedo."

"You know what I'll find?"

"Not for sure, and I don't like making guesses. But if John's end game was to kill you, he wouldn't have waited until he would be forced to share your fate to do it."

Kirk stood, his head leaning to one side. "You really think he's indestructible don't you? You don't think there's a way to beat him. I find that strange – you don't seem like the kind of woman who gets moved by anything."

"Let me tell you what I know about John Harrison. When he comes after you, you throw every photon in this ship in his face and you high tail it to the other end of the universe. You won't escape him, there is no escaping him." She swallowed. "But you might get a few more days before he kills you."

Kirk stood. "I've got to make a call. I'll send for you when we open it – we'll figure this out together alright?"

She nodded quickly, waiting till he walked away to grab the bed for support. He'd done his part… how could hers be coming so soon?


	15. Chapter 14: No Rest for the Wicked

Eve only had a couple hours before the call for Doctor McCoy over the com to report to the shuttle bay. She ignored it at first, in the middle of a conversation with one of the relatively unharmed members of engineering, just some light burns that needed freezing gel. She was explaining that the warp core had suddenly exploded in a flare of fire, and that they'd found how to fix it but not the actual source of the problem.

It set off all sorts of warning bells and whistles in the back of her mind, but she hadn't yet assembled all the pieces to figure out why. Engineering had plenty of problems, it was the reason their team existed. Warp cores malfunctioned, on occasion. But for it to malfunction just as they encroached on the single most anti-federation sector of space known... It reeked of Marcus.

Then she saw McCoy speaking with a nurse, already heading out the doors.  
"Doctor Swan?" Doctor Povlati came over to her. "You're being summoned to the bridge over the com. I can show you the way, if you like. Probably better not to make the Captain wait."

"Perish the thought." Eve mumbled before turning her attention to the red shirted woman. "Keep the gel on for at least the rest of the day; ask one of the nurses to get you the cover gloves so it will stay on. Check in here before you go to bed tonight, get a fresh coating. No working, enjoy the excuse to have a little R&R. Good luck."

"Thank you Doctor." The woman said as Eve touched her arm, then left with Povlati.

"Do as I say, not as I do huh?" Povlati smirked, throwing her hands up as Eve gave her a look. "Hey, I get it, just saying it was good advice you're blatantly ignoring."

"Just saying." Eve shook her head. "How long have you served on the Enterprise?"

"Since it belonged to Admiral Pike."

"Christopher Pike? Man what a loss it was to Starfleet when he had to step back." Eve shook her head. "You heard stories about him, you know, as a cadet? He did the commencement speech for my graduation."

Povlati blanched. "Did you know the Admiral?"

"Only in name, really. He had a good laugh once when I knocked out a civilian in front of him for grabbing my ass. Broke the data pad I was holding, but it sent the needed message. Pike's a friend of the Captain's, isn't he?"

She smiled sadly. "Sounds like him. Yeah, he was a mentor to the Captain. He was... in the conference room Harrison attacked with the jumpship."

No wonder Kirk hated Khan. And no wonder he believed Khan was beatable - he had to.

"It's going to get better, the farther you get away from all this." Povlati said as she stepped into the elevator.

It was a common enough held lie. One she'd tried to convince herself over a year as she woke up sobbing, sheets grafted to her skin with sweat. Just one more month, and you'll forget he's still there. One more week, you won't hear his voice in the twilight hours. One more day, just make it one more day.

Leaving Khan had destroyed most of the relationships she had. She drew away from her sister and brother in law, even the newly cured Lacy talked to her mostly over phone. The vague starting of something with a guy she met in a club during her sister's attempt to bridge gaps shriveled and died in the shadow of her guilt. Eventually all she had were mild attachments to people she used to know, so all there was was to eat tasteless meals, sleep sleepless nights away, and try to make some modicum of good at her work.

It made her wonder what the death of a starship would mean for her.  
"I know." She lied, but the dead tone of her voice gave her away. Eve didn't step forward into the elevator.

Povlati opened her mouth to give hope another try, but Eve shook her head. "Povlati, can you take me to the brig?"

The doctor's eyes swelled. "I don't think that's a good idea. You need distance-"  
"I need closure." Eve interrupted, folding her arms. Her hands were shaking again, and as much as she hated it she lifted one to push a stray hair out of her face to insure the other woman saw. "P-please. I need to ask him why."

"He's a psychopath; I don't think he knows why."

"Why are we scientists if we don't go after the why?" Eve implored. "How can we call ourselves doctors if we don't try to fix people?"

"I think he's beyond saving." Povlati said as deftly as she could. "Some people can't be fixed - we need to accept that as woman and as doctors."

"Well I refuse to. John Harrison isn't the kind of person who seeks random chaos - I know him. There's a reason for all this."

"And was there a reason for what he did to you?" Povlati challenged.

Eve winced as she swallowed. "I've done terrible things. I have perpetuated so much torment for that man... He should have killed me. But he didn't. And I deserve to know why."

Povlati groaned, gripping her head, dragging her fingers through her hair. "What do we tell the Captain?"

"I'll meet him in med bay later, tell him I needed to walk around and get some air." Eve smiled invitingly. "I'm a trauma victim - he can deal with it."  
"You're so going to get me sanctioned."

Under Eve's instruction, Povlati took a quick trip back to the bay, grabbing the equipment for taking more blood samples. Together they made the long journey down into the center of the ship, Povlati drumming on the data pad case all the way and humming nervously.

Eve felt strangely eager, the idea of seeing the only one who really knew what was going on making her move a little faster. By the time they entered the massive round room, four cells built into the walls and two red shirts sitting at separate desks, they were both more charged than a than a rabbit chewing battery packs.

The two red shirts looked up, the Barzan one call out, "There aren't any scheduled visits."

"Chief McCoy wants more blood samples to work with." Eve lifted one of the self-filling needles. "He was called away by the Captain before he sent the message, but he still needs it done."

"You can't see the prisoner without permission from a senior officer." The human red shirt shook his head. "Sorry."

"No that's alright." Eve smiled crisply. "I'll just send down the Chief after the Captain has asked him to do some extremely taxing work, prepped with the information of how you wouldn't let us draw blood samples, and let him deal with you. He's always so civil after all, when he gets slowed down by red tape... and red shirts."

The guards exchanged looks, and then sighed. The human one lifted up a data pad. "Fill in this form."

"Povlati?" Eve nodded to the waiting paperwork and then strode across the room, trying her best not to smirk at Khan watching her with a muted look of delight.

Eve touched the small silver circle on the side as the man and Povlati began talking, drawing it in front of her and extending it into a gap in the glass and beckoning him with a finger. Khan walked over languidly, stopping in front of the hole.

"Arm please."

"Now this is more comfortable." He put his arm through the hole. He was wearing clothes he'd been given also, black pants and shirt with a barely visible Starfleet symbol. She sighed, sticking the case of needles under her arm and moving closer to roll up his sleeve.

"You seem to have acclimatized nicely." He watched her work she felt an unexpected fluster as she realized he was observing the dress as well. "I imagine these familiar surroundings are something of a comfort to you."

"It's strange." She shrugged, making sure his sleeve was tucked and secure before opening the kit of three needles. "I swore I'd never set foot on one of these again... Wear this uniform. Last time I did, a whole lot of people died."

"You also saved a great number as I understand." Khan didn't express any judgment, but she was back into question. She could feel it. Seeing her on the other side of a spread of glass, how could he not feel that basic need to distrust her again? That was half of how he survived the year.

"Why are you having Kirk open the missile? They'll find your people."

"I had doubts about you capability to open and armed torpedo. It's the safest way for you to gain access."

"And you don't think when they find a frozen man they're going to get him under high security lockdown?"

"This... Kirk trusts his crew as much as I. He won't see a need."

Khan looked down as she jabbed the needle into his arm, setting off the device leading it to begin drawing out his blood. Khan laughed softly. "You've lost your place, and are trying to find it again. Tell me, why come here when Kirk is so eager to protect you?"

She drew out the needle. "I don't need his protection."

"No, then why are you hesitating now, if not for fear of what happens to you when my people wake?"

"You're saying that like I don't have a reason to worry! But, actually, it's the crew of this ship - thousands of lives." Eve hissed starting on the second sample. "These aren't people like Marcus, or you and I. These are good people, Khan. People who want to help, and who have people who care about them."  
"These good people were ready to obliterate us knowing you might very well be innocent."

"You said it yourself. If they were going to use the torpedoes, they wouldn't have sent in a landing crew - not to mention their captain. And what makes you more worthy of salvation than all of them? I can't even trust you half the time! Twenty three, seventeen, forty six, eleven. You knew where the virus was. So why not tell me?"

Khan's mood visibly darkened. "I would have told you if the need arose."

"If you had no other choice you mean."

"Yes... If I had no other choice. You are the variable in all this Eve - you never take the same path twice. It makes you difficult to predict, which means limiting your knowledge base is the only way to counter your independent tendencies."

"I don't have independent tendencies."

"Name one person other than myself who is essential to your survival."

She made a noise of frustration. "Fine, I hate depending on people - they're breakable and unreliable. At least my tendencies aren't homicidal. But Khan... there has to be a way for your crew to live as well as Kirk's."

"I doubt it." Khan frowned. "Do you wish for me to attempt to find one?"

"I'd like for us to be different than Marcus." Eve tucked the two filled needles away, the last one in hand. Not much time. "I think we can be. Kirk might not have to be the enemy. And we have time, the warp core malfunctioned - there are plenty of burn victims in the med bay saying so. So long as we're not on route to Earth, we have time."

He exhaled slowly as she slid the last needle in. "And if they fix the warp core and attempt to return me to face justice?"

"No need to jump in the river when the bridge is farther along." Eve pulled back the needle, touching his hand for just a moment. "We have to try. Thank you. Really."

"Do not trust to hope." He warned as he pulled his arm back, fingers brushing her own. "But I will do what is possible."

Eve jumped as Povlati came up beside her. Khan continued looking at Eve, ignoring the other doctor entirely.

"Times up. Come on." Povlati glowered at Khan, reaching forward and shutting the gap then grabbing Eve and steering here away. "Did you get what you came for?"

"More." Eve had to bite her lip to lessen her beam as they left the brig.  
Povlati shook her head, digging her fingers into her data pad. "I don't know how you can stand to be so close to him. Just looking at him makes my skin crawl."

"You don't know what Admiral Marcus did to that man." Eve shook her head, smile wilting. "He took everything from John. I don't think any many who cares about his family would react that differently."

"My dad loves me." Povlati said slowly. "But he wouldn't steal a jumpship and unload on a room full of innocent people."

"He sees all of Starfleet as responsible for his suffering." Eve knew this exercise was pointless, but part of her didn't want to be the only person who saw the redeeming qualities behind all the rage and brutality.

"So it's okay that he killed Pike, since he misunderstood?"

"Of course not. I'm just saying it's easy to fear people when you sensationalize them. Jim Kirk is the swaggering Captain with the heart of gold, everyone loves him. John Harrison is the lunatic who murdered innocents and kidnaped a woman from her office." Eve shrugged. "They're both just flawed men driven by the same motivation. Protect their family. Kirk came out her to avenge his - well so did Harrison."

"It's... It's not the same."

"Really? I'm pretty sure Marcus didn't load you guys to the gunnels with torpedoes just to sound imposing. Kirk left Starfleet intending to use them - which would have killed me and John. I'm not saying I'm innocent, but I hardly deserve to get blown up."

"But he didn't do it." Povlati said, nodding vigorously. Eve's brows lifted as she realized, Povlati wasn't trying to convince her anymore. "Anyways, I hope it was worth all this. Doctor McCoy is going to have me flayed."

A chance that everyone might be saved, a moment with the only person she still had a connection with, and three off record vials of Khan's blood. Three more lives she could stash away, to save for a darker day. Was it worth it? Infinitely. She had everything she could ask for, and only the man trapped in the plastic box knew it. All in all, she felt for the first time in a very long time like an equal of Khan.


	16. Chapter 15: The Man on that Ship

Evelette was about to enter the med bay doors when she heard her name being called. She slowed, Pavlati scampering inside ahead of her as Kirk and Spock approached. Eve shifted the case in her hand, moving it out of sight her as she clasped her hands behind her back. "Jim."

"Bones and Doctor Marcus opened the torpedo." Kirk filled her in, the two of them going in side by side forcing her to shift the samples again as Spock followed along behind them. She felt herself pale at the name Marcus, instantly on edge. "There's something inside. Bones, what have we got?"

McCoy looked up, a scanner in hand. A blond woman in a blue dress took off a white panel from the torpedo now sitting on a medical stretcher, taking it over to a pile of panels off to the side. "It's quite clever, the fuel container has been removed from the torpedo and retrofitted to hide this cryotube."

The three of them hurried up to the weapon, Eve sliding the case of needles into her boot then moving to the top of the tube, peering down into a pale blue face – serene in sleep, surrounded by blue frozen gel. Kirk looked around. "Is he alive?"

"Oh he's alive." McCoy nodded. "But if we try to revive him without the proper sequencing?"

"It could kill him." Eve filled in, tilting her head. She scooted up beside Kirk to examine the frozen man further. "He's older – late fifties at least. Male… Latino if I had to guess. His clothes don't have any indicator as to his station. It would be extremely risky reviving a man of his age under the best of circumstances… but if we could figure out the sequence... Harrison's body is impressively resilient, and the theory in my think tank was genetic alteration. It's possible this man has the same abilities. Do we have anyone capable of figuring out the code?"

"Well, the technology is beyond me." McCoy shrugged.

"How advanced, Doctor?" Spock inquired.

"It's not advanced." The woman, presumably Doctor Marcus. She came up beside Spock to join them in staring. "This cryotube is ancient."

"We haven't had a need to freeze anyone since we developed warp capabilities." Eve conceded, folding her arms. "Cryotubes were for when light-years were a problem."

"Which explains the most interesting thing about our friend here." McCoy lowered his scanner. "He's three hundred years old."

Spock and Kirk looked at each other, and then Kirk looked to Eve. She touched her brow, lowering her lids as she pretended to think hard. "When I was brought Harrison for the first time, his body was suffering total shut down. It's consistent with the effects of being incorrectly resuscitated from cryogenic slumber. The cells have crystalized, and then they're revitalized too quickly and the body is faced with water poisoning. The cells are surrounded by a hypotonic solution – there's more solute in the cell – and so the water rushes in until the cell explodes. That he survived at all was biologically impossible, but…"

Kirk moved away from the table, jogging out the door his first officer tailing him. Eve watched them go, then looked down at the man again, still trapped in some memory from three hundred years before. Memory of a field cloaked in sunlight, maybe, or the smell of a wife's hair… the way her face would crinkle when she smiled. Surely even war criminals dreamed of better days.

What did Khan dream about, she wondered.

"Are you alright?"

Eve recoiled as the blonde reached out to touch her. "Fine."

The woman seemed to sadden slightly. "You were on SS Montana, weren't you? You saved half the crew."

"Watched the other half die first." Eve said, keeping her expression vacant as she scanned the face before her. She couldn't see Alexander Marcus in this woman, but the name… "If we'd had some of these cryotubes… Put a body under stasis, freeze the virus and force it to halt… we might have saved a lot more."

"No one could have known." Doctor Marcus offered her hand. "Carol Marcus. I've read reports on you're bravery, the only one who would go into the quarantined part of the ship to attempt to treat the sick with your antivirus. As I understand you got them to lock the bulkhead behind you to remove any chance of further infection. You didn't even know your cure would work."

"You know what the worst part about being a hero in the Starfleet records? People feel the need to remind you again and again about the worst moment in your entire life, as if your trying to forget it is just an accident. I'm a double trauma patient, not an amnesia victim."

Eve sighed as Carol's face went blank and she retracted her hand, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry… Sorry… rough couple weeks." Eve leaned forward, grabbing Carol's hand and shaking it. "Evelette Swan, inserter of foot into mouth. Being able to address the whole experience is better than the people who stare at me like a stunned tarsier."

Carol's smile returned and she laughed. "You don't have to apologise, I suppose you get people being rather forward a great deal. I know what it's like having people define you by the past – although the shadow I live under isn't actually mine."

Eve didn't dare ask. She couldn't bring herself to hate this woman. There was a genuine warmth in her that Eve wanted to believe in too much.

"So what do we do with a three hundred year old frozen man?" Eve looked to McCoy as he returned. "Put him in intensive care or the storage closet?"

"Beats me." McCoy grumbled, shaking his head. "What kind of a man stores his crew in armed torpedoes?"

"A desperate one." Eve said quietly. "I'll go wash up, get back on rounds while you figure out where to put El Popsicle."

McCoy nodded, and Eve went over to the sanitation station. And then the com turned on, and a voice barked, "Chief, Captain is sending Khan to you with six armed guards."

McCoy whipped his head up toward the speaker. "Is he from the shallow end of the gene pool? You, you, help me get this bed rolled into C wing. Doctor Swan, if you could get a cot prepped for our friend? While we have him here might as well take the chance to run some scans. Get a data pad and start inputting everything you know about Mr. Talk Dark and Homicidal."

Eve nodded briskly, running to the nearest cot and snatching up the data pad, beginning to throw in all the small useless bits of information she had compiled over time. She looked up as the doors of the bay slid open, and in marched a small contingency of armed men, Khan standing in the center examining everything as his eyes darted around.

They stopped and held on Eve, trying to tell her something. She frowned, trying to understand the urgency in his eyes. She hurried forward, calling, "Over here gentlemen. Two of you stay on the door, the others spread out. We're on a ship floating in space, there's not much of a variety of places for him to escape to. Mr. Harrison, the bed is for you so I suggest you get comfortable."

All did as she commanded, making her smirk slightly. She strode over to Khan as he settled on the bed, sitting strictly upright, and pulled out the datapad pretending to be focused on it. "What is it, what's happening?"

"He is here."

She looked up sharply, and the coms let out a soft ping and then from them came a sickeningly familiar voice as Carol and McCoy came over to Khan.

"Captain Kirk."

"Admiral Marcus, I wasn't expecting you. That's a hell of a ship you got there."

"And I wasn't expecting you to get word that you'd taken Harrison and Swan into custody in violation of your orders."

A few eyes turned towards Eve and Khan. She lowered the data pad as McCoy brought up a smaller hand held scanner and began working while listening.

"Well we uh, we had to improvise when our warp core unexpectedly malfunctioned. But you already knew that, didn't you Sir?"

"I don't take your meaning."

"Well that's why you're here isn't it, to assist in our repairs? Why else would the head of Starfleet personally come to the edge of the neutral zone? Something I can help you find, Sir?"

"Where are your prisoners, Kirk?"

Eve breathed in sharply as the red shirts shifted and began moving in closer.

"Per Starfleet regulation I'm bringing _Khan_ to Earth to receive trial. Doctor Swan can then be put under investigation, but I doubt you'll find her very… what was the word you used to describe her Sir? Crazed and fanatically obsessed?"

Eve smiled faintly, eyes meeting with Khan's. Not perfect… but moral.

"Well shit… you talked to them. This is exactly the kind of thing I was trying to save you from. I took a tactical risk when I woke that bastard up believing his superior intelligence could help us fight whatever came at us next, and now the blood of the innocents he's kill is on my hands. That… _doctor_, on your ship, is the only reason he was free to murder good men – men like Christopher Pike. So I'm asking you, give them to me so I can end what I started."

"And what exactly would you like me to do with the rest of his crew, Sir? Fire them at the Klingons? End seventy two lives, and start a war in the process?"

"He put those people in there, and I simply didn't want to burden you with knowing what was inside them. You saw what this man can do with the help of a weak minded woman, can you imagine what would happen if we woke up the rest of his crew? There's no hope of playing the peace keeper don't you see? They're playing you son! Khan and his crew were condemned to death as war criminals. It's our duty to carry out that sentence. Now I'm going to ask you again, one last time son. Lower your shields, tell me where they are."

A moment of silence, when Eve waited for the ground underneath her to crumble and drop away.

"They're in engineering, Sir, but I'll have them moved to the transporter room immediately."

"I'll take it from here."

Another tone and the com cut out. Eve gripped the side of the bed, shutting her eyes as she let the relief wash over her.

"Doctor Swan?" McCoy's voice drew her gaze. He'd paused his examination. "You okay?"

Eve looked to Carol, who was watching her uncertainly. "Bad couple weeks."

The ship whistled around them, and with a vague tug it launched into warp. Eve leaned against the bed as McCoy went back to work, Carol hanging back from Khan and Eve. "Well, at least we're moving again."

"If you think you're safe at warp… you're wrong." Khan's eyes flickered to Eve.

There went her solid footing. She felt her eyes swell, and Carol let out a gasp. Neither of them paused to explain to McCoy, who was looking at them like they'd sprouted second heads, but both took off at a dead sprint out of the med bay.

Carol paused at the door, calling, "Permission to come on the bridge?"

Eve blasted past her, rushing to Jim as he nodded for them to come on. Eve's boots skidded as she slid to a halt panting. "We aren't safe!"

"He's going to catch up to us, and when he does the only thing that's going to stop him from destroying this ship is me so you're going to have to let me talk to him." Carol blurted out.

"Ladies, we're at warp." Kirk tried to show them by nodded to the window. "He can't catch up to us."

"Yes he can!" Eve leapt in. "When I finally found out why Marcus wanted Khan it was because I discovered his plans to build a ship Khan created – one with advanced warp capabilities. Jim if you don't pull over he's going to turn us to space dust."

"Captain?" An Asian man turned in his seat, looking to Kirk. "I'm getting a reading I don't understand."

"Jim." Eve whispered urgently. "Whatever you thought about Marcus and Khan, now is the time to reverse it. The virus I'm famous for curing? Marcus seized samples and has been attempting to weaponize it. I'm not Khan's prisoner, I haven't been for a while. He's the most dangerous enemy you'll ever have, but he has more morals than your Starfleet admiral and much more humanity. I agreed to go with him to destroy Marcus' virus. If you don't think the man on that ship is willing and in fact eager to kill each and every one of us, you could not be more wrong. This whole crew just because loose ends."

Kirk stared at her, struggling to comprehend the gravity of what she was saying. She understood, by the gods she understood. She'd found it almost impossible to believe herself, and she'd already hated Marcus.

And then she was flung to the side, staggering and gripping the captain's chair as Kirk struggled to catch Carol and the crew gripped their stations. The ship groaned around them, shuddering as it's form tried to keep up warp speed as it tore at the hole in the ship.

Another blast, and Eve's feet nearly came out from under her. The noise turned to a shriek, and the Enterprise began spinning about uncontrollably. They dropped out of the blue vapours and into space, alarms firing off from all stations.

Kirk was on his feet and steady in an instant. "Where are we?"

"Two hundred thirty seven thousand kilometers from earth!" The Asian man reported.

A dark skinned woman turned in her seat. "We're defenceless sir!"

"Sir we have a bulk head breach." A Vorta reported striding passed.

Kirk turned to a man with entirely blue eyes. "Where's the damage."

"Major hull damage captain." The cyborg reported.

More shots rained down on the Enterprise. Kirk strode towards the chair. "Evasive maneuvers!"

"Captain! If you don't let me speak to him everyone on this ship is going to die!" Carol shouted, everyone in the room going silent and turning to look at their leader.

He thought for only an instant. "Uhura, hail them."

The woman from Qo'noS leaned forward, flicking communications on.

"Dad, dad it's Carol." Carol turned toward the front window. Eve felt her stomach pitch downward looking at the blonde. Marcus' daughter…

The leviathan ceased fire immediately, Marcus appearing on the screen. "Carol? What are you doing on that ship?"

"I heard what you said." She took a deep breath. Eve could see tears mounting about the woman's lower lids. "That you made a mistake and now you're doing everything you can to fix it. But Dad… I don't believe that the man who raised me is capable of killing an entire ship full of people. And if I'm wrong about that, then you're going to have to do it with me on board."

"Oh." Carol tilted her head, and then golden light began wrapping around her. She turned to Kirk, eyes wide. "Jim?"

"Can you disrupt the signal?" Kirk demanded of a woman with white hair.

She shook her head, and screaming Carol attempted to run. She disappeared into nothingness before she could reach the door. The bridge was silent, staring at where the admiral's daughter had been.

"Doctor Swan, I see in typical cockroach fasion you've managed to endure Khan's initial anger." Marcus' voice drew all eyes to Eve, and she faced him slowly. "Well, at least partially."

"I'm not the one who kept him trapped like an animal." She said coldly.

"No, just tested him like one." Marcus sat back smugly. "The Deep Space Virus… that's how he got you isn't it? I knew it was a mistake bringing him in on that project. I assume you've tested that missing vial?"

"Thoroughly." Eve's voice wavered slightly.

"Good. It's ready for human trials… and I thought, who better to be patient zero than the good doctor herself?"

Panic, sheer mind blasting panic. Eve took a step back as the rings began forming around her, speeding up rapidly. She looked to Kirk as he grabbed her arm. "I'm sorry."

"We'll get you back." He promised, holding tight. "We're going to get you back, Eve."

And then he was swallowed up by golden light, forcing her to shut her eyes or risk blinding herself. When she opened them, a wall of phaser armed men stood before her, dressed not in Starfleet uniform but rather grey with blue triangles on the shoulders. Two men held Carol, gripping her arms as she squirmed and tugged and screamed.

"Come down slowly." A man ordered. "Hands on your head."

Eve watched Carol stop and turn, and shook her head over so slightly. They couldn't beat these men. She wasn't Khan, and she'd never got that self-defence lesson. Carol's shoulders sank, and Eve made her way down the steps, placing her hands on the back of her head.

One of the men moved forward, patting at her dress briefly making her grimace. Then he tugged her arms down behind her, and freezing cold metal sealed around her wrists, the cuffs lighting up with two pin stripes of white light to signal they were locked. The men moved into formation around her and Carol, four for each of them, forming a box around the women,

Then with a rough jab by the rifle to her back, Eve was forced forward further into the black halls of the ship.


	17. Chapter 16: Rota Fortunae

The walk inside the belly of the beast was long, and like she always saw Khan doing she began taking in every detail, even though few seemed genuinely important. Limited lighting to conserve energy, limited crew - too few it seemed to actually run a ship of this size, unless more were just concealed. Every once and a while Carol tried to get free of her guards, and though she never even got close it was strangely uplifting to see her try.

It reminded Eve she wasn't entirely alone in this.

Then the doors in front of them parted, and Eve stepped forward into the bridge of the ship. It was similar to that of the Enterprise, all be it darker and approximately half the size and man power. Marcus wasn't in the captain's chair but rather standing over with another man examining what looked to be the weapons system.

"Sir," one of the guards called, drawing Marcus' attention.

He addressed his daughter first. "I'll deal with you later. Doc-"

Whatever he meant to say was lost when Carol slapped him clear across the face. The guards had let her pass now she was near her father, but they hurried forward to grab her arms again as she snarled, "I am ashamed to be your daughter."

Marcus blinked, then nodded and his men forced Carol over to the other side of the room. His blue eyes locked on Eve as she became more solitary, guards more concerned with the violent doctor than the quiet one. He didn't look as victorious as she'd expected, probably a result of his daughter's utter disgust. Instead he had a much more dangerous look - grim determination.

"Give me that." He held his hand out to one of the guards remaining. The man hesitated, then passed over the phaser in hand. It was a different design than normal rifles, all silver with a slit of blue glowing up the side to the handle. Marcus twisted the handle and popped a lever, and blue turned red.

Eve took a deep breath as everyone moved back from her, Marcus lifting the gun toward her. She waited for her hands to start shaking, or for her heart to burst into a wild flare of action. Her hands kept steady. Her heart didn't so much as flutter.

Here was where she belonged, on the other side of a weapon from Marcus. Here everything was blissfully simple, black and white in her muddled grey universe. There was the enemy, right in her sites. No guilt, no indecision, just perfect clarity.

"Tell me everything you know about Khan's plans."

Eve smiled slightly. "Well, he might have changed his plans since being moved to engineering, but I think he was hoping to get a nap in, maybe some pacing, a good hour of practicing his evil cackle."

She didn't have time to brace herself before the front of the phaser collided with her face, smashing against her nose and knocking her head back. She staggered, gripping her face as Carol screamed at her father to stop. Eve was unprepared as Marcus swung the phaser, smashing the length of the gun into her side. The damages side.

The metal floor smashed against her knee caps as she collapsed, blood gushing through her fingers as she wheezed for breath, the compiled pain screaming cracked ribs, potentially a broken nose.

"What is Khan planning?" Marcus asked again slowly, the room silent as Marcus pressed the phaser into the top of her head, forcing it downward. "Tell me so I can end your miserable existence."

Eve lifted her head, lowering a crimson hand to the floor. The red fluid was tailing down her face, nose distinctly crooked slightly to the right. She spoke quietly, too quiet for anyone to hear. Marcus jabbed at her again, leaning forward. "Speak up you waste."

She licked her lips, and then spat directly into his face. "I said go suck off a Klingon you disgraceful excuse for a man."

Even knowing what came next, the impact of metal against flesh was no less painful. He hit her in the throat right above her sternum. She gagged, and for a moment she thought he'd collapsed her wind pipe as she lay on her back, black spots invading her vision as her body attempted unsuccessfully to claim air.

When it came it was like drinking hot coals, and then Marcus' boot began ramming into her side over and over. She could hear Carol fighting to stop him, trying to save her, but she was still powerless against the armed men.

Eve kept count at first, but then he managed to hit the same set of ribs he had with the gun and for an instant everything went blank. When she came back to herself, she was lying on her stomach, her blood slowly leaking out of her nose onto the floor as a male voice spoke nervously.

"Sir, we've had an airlock open in engineering."

Marcus let out a low growl. "Khan."

Eve yelped as Marcus stepped down on one of her hands. "Well at least we have something he wants."

He moved his foot off, going over to the chair. Carol broke free, rushing over to Eve and picking her up gingerly. She couldn't help the noise she made as Carol lay her down in her lap, trying to mop up some of the blood with her hands.

"It's alright." She whispered frantically, eyes swelling as the red spread over them both. "Oh god I'm so sorry."

Eve tried to reach for her boot, but everything was burning. Carol tilted her head, glancing around before sliding her fingers into Eve's boot. She breathed in sharply as she touched the small case, Marcus ordering his crew trying to do something with weapons systems.

Deftly, Carol slid the case out and under Eve out of sight. "What is it?"

"Inject." Eve could feel something was seriously wrong inside her. The needles were useless to someone who didn't know what they were. "Me."

Carol undid the clasp, continuously watching the room. She slid one of the needles into her hand, glancing down quickly.

"Do it." Eve begged, blood welling up in her mouth.

She didn't feel the needle go in. For a while, she couldn't actually feel her legs. Then her ears began ringing, and all the pain flooded back into her at once. She grit her teeth, but she let out a muddled scream of pain that drew attention back to her.

Marcus stood up from his chair, walking over. Carol attempted to ward him off, but he seized Eve by the hair and dragged her up. She tried to get her legs underneath herself, but mostly he dragged her to the chair. He sat down, yanking her head up and pulling an arm around her neck so he had her head completely pinned.

"I want you to see this." He said into her ear. She looked out the window, the Enterprise floating in the distance amidst the debris of the ship where the guns had torn it to shreds.

"Power coming online, Sir!" A woman called from one of the stations.

"Retarget the Enterprise now!" Marcus barked.

The shriek of phaser fire erupted across the room, three men storming in the entrance raining down blue light on the unsuspecting crew of the ship. Carol swung her arm up taking down the nearest guard, and Eve buried her teeth into Marcus's exposed wrist. He shouted, releasing her and shoving so she landed on the floor.

She scrambled away, slamming against the side of one of the stations as all the crew slumped in their chairs out cold. Kirk rushed up in front of Marcus, training a pistol phaser on his head as another man moved to the far side of the room.

Eve forced herself to her feet, her rapidly mending body barely managing to support her. She saw Khan shortly before he collided with her, pulling her body to his with such crushing force that it felt like her ribs were retracing. His one arm held her lower back, the other cupping the back of her head bringing her close to his shoulder.

"Khan." She choked out a sob.

He took her face in his hands, and despite the blood, crooked nose, the weakness, he rushed forward. His lips were unyielding, determined and sure. She let all her fear soak into him through that core connection, drinking in his silent assurance that she was safe now. That there would be no separation from each other, not ever again.

It was no one else's definition of love, but she'd never been so completely assured that she was wanted in all her life. Like the Greek mythology of her child hood - the two halves had finally become whole.

"This ends here." Khan's eyes narrowed to slits as he moved back, looking at her face. It was healing right in front of him, but the blood which had spread down her neck and dress told everything he needed to know. Kirk had been talking to Marcus, demanding he leave the chair. The other man was trying not to watch Khan and watch him at the same time, looking mightily conflicted.

Eve could feel the absolute vindictive force of her other half mounting.

"Stay." She whispered, taking his hands in her own. That was when she noticed one of her fingers was crooked, unable to bend. "Don't."

But it wasn't in him to forgive. And now it wasn't Khan's torment alone that Marcus had to answer for.

Khan released her, and began quick strides toward Marcus before a streak of blue light knocked him off his feet, slamming him onto the floor.

"Khan!" Eve rushed to him, falling to the floor again and pulling him onto his back. She pushed his face off his hair, stroking him wildly as she looked over him to the third man, lowering his phaser and walking over.

"Sorry." He mouthed.

"Get away." She said coldly as the man tried to help her lift Khan's head. "I'm sick of Starfleet help."

Then Khan's eyes flew open and his hand snapped forward, grabbing the man's arm and yanking him forward, his leg flipping up and ramming his foot into the side of the man's head flipping him onto his back and knocking him down in one swoop.

Khan leapt to his feet.

"Jim!" Carol tried to warn Kirk, but Khan dove over the station between them, tackling Kirk. Marcus leapt from his chair, making a run for a strange door with a complex looking lock system as Khan picked Kirk up, punching him across the face and letting out a snarl of frustration. A second punch, and then Khan dragged him up by his hair and kneed Kirk in the ribs, tossing him to the side.

Carol caught and steadied Kirk, but then seeing Khan going for her father rushed to get between them shouting, "Stop, just wait!"

Khan threw her aside, pausing only to stomp her leg, the bone cracking loudly as Carol wailed in pain. Khan hardly slowed, closing the final distance between him and Marcus as the man turned, seeing it was too late.

Khan gripped his head in both his hands, yanking him away from the door. Marcus began yelling, forcing Eve to realize what was happening.

"You should have let me sleep." Khan hissed.

And then Marcus's skull collapsed under the pressure of Khan's hands, and Alexander Marcus died in a spray of blood and brain. It was one of the least dignified ways Eve could invent. And the only regret she felt was for Carol, whose terror and sorrow swallowed up the room in a single piercing cry.


	18. This isn't a chapterrr! Life update

Hey guys and gals! So I've been seeing reviews on my phone, and absolutely dying I SO badly want to share with you guys. I promise, this story is not forgotten or getting dropped!

So, let me explain. I'm currently hugging the side of a log cabin, fighting off mosquitoes and ignoring skeptical looks from northern Canadians. Yes, I'm in Northern Canada. I'm on my way to a hike, and I've been camping along the way so no internet! I'm currently stealing some to let you all know, because the guilt is killing me. So, what good is all this you ask? My absolute hope is to get a chap out tonight to tide you all over, as I have two more days driving then I'm on the hike for a week and there's no prayer on service. Wish me luck guys, and know I battle some pretty darn terrifying blood suckers to get Eve to you.

Love you all,

Scarlett


	19. Chapter 17: An Explosive Error

**So many bites. Oh gosh so itchy. Alright, love all your faces, see you in a little over a week.**

For a moment Eve stood paralyzed by the sheer enormity of it all. She saw Khan moving, picking Kirk off the floor and dragging him toward the front window, but her brain couldn't manage anything beyond the knowledge that the enemy was dead. Admiral Marcus was dead, and now the only thing left was to destroy the virus and her work was done. She could rest.

NO. Her logic came screaming like an unholy force launched free of its cage. This wasn't safety. Look at him - listen to what he's about to do! Carol's leg is shattered.

Spock came up on the screen, but Eve was rushing to Carol who was writhing on the ground in pain, trying not to scream and yet clearly in enormous pain. Not deathly, but Eve couldn't bring herself to leave the woman. She gripped her hand, Carol's eyes flying open in alarm as she let out a small groan.

"Don't look." Eve whispered, holding tight to Carol's hand. She deliberately put herself in the way of the other woman's view of the gore beyond. "Hold on, you're going home soon."

"Your crew, for my crew." Khan sneered, expression dripping with a loathing which suggested he felt he was getting the far superior half of the trade.

"No." Carol said sharply, gripping Eve's arm and forcing her to look at her. "They're the same. My father, Khan, they're the same."

"You don't understand him." Eve shook her head. "They're completely different."

"My father did the things he did for the preservation of his people." Carol said urgently. "What is it you think Khan isn't capable of?"

"I know what he's capable of." Eve said, too quiet for anyone but herself to hear. She looked down at the blood covering her, the finger which desperately needed to be popped back into alignment. "We aren't capable of giving up on the people we love. If we didn't believe in their capacity for change and betterment, we never would have loved them to begin with."

Carol wanted her to abandon Khan, to go and join the Enterprise where love was healthy and simple and pure, where people looked after each other, and made the morally obvious choices. This was her invitation into the light.

But she couldn't pass over that threshold... She didn't want to without Khan, and it was a place he couldn't go.

But she could gather what little of that light she'd had for a golden moment. She could protect these people, so long as they warranted protecting. They had attacked Khan, and so he had found his new enemy. But they had protected her, sheltered her, believed in her.

Eve followed Carol's gaze to Kirk, struggling on the ground trying to get to his feet. Whatever Khan had done to him, the damage wasn't so much deadly as it was effective. Kirk, despite his great attempts, could not rise. Eve left Carol, crawling toward Kirk carful to remain out of Khan's gaze as she placed a hand on Kirk's chest, forcing him to stop rising and guiding him back down onto the ground. They met eyes for a moment, and she gave him a nod.

She lifted her head as there came the low growl from Khan. "Now... shall we begin?"

"Lower shields." Spock said quietly. He wouldn't sound alarmed, he had too much control for that. But she could hear defeat in the Vulcan's voice.

"A wise choice, Mr. Spock." Khan said, glowing with the aura of delight power gave him. He looked down to Kirk, pausing as he saw Eve as his feet watching him. He'd intended to harm Kirk while he was down, exert more force than was necessary. Her presence seemed to sooth the impulse. Striding over to the captain's chair and settling in Marcus' throne, Khan brought up a blueprint of the Enterprise on screen and at once the scan found and confirmed it had locked on to seventy two missiles.

"If they're not mine, Mr. Spock, I will know it." Khan warned.

"Vulcan's do not lie. The torpedoes are yours."

And so the massive ship drew out the torpedoes from the belly of the Enterprise, and they appeared as one on the security screen of the hanger bay. Eve breathed out in relief, fingers releasing Kirk who'd she'd unthinkingly gripped in the tension of the transfer. She watched Khan, his smile swelling. Here was his long awaited reward. To be reunited with his people he had thought lost. Spock had given him everything. There was no reason left to hate.

"Thank you, Mr. Spock." Khan breathed.

"I have fulfilled your terms. Now fufill mine."

Khan gave Eve a look, and she moved away from Kirk. "Don't get up." She whispered, even though he was trying again all the same. "It's going to be alright now. I promise, you're safe."

Getting to her feet, Eve moved to the side as Khan considered the other captain. "Well, Kirk, it seems apt to return you to your crew. After all, no ship should go down without her captain."

She felt the gentle shift as quicksand opened up underneath her. Golden light wrapped the other three, but she could already see Khan going for the automated weapon systems. She didn't make a sound. There was no point to it. Instead she grabbed Kirk's abandonded phaser off the floor, flipped it to red, and moving in front of him so there could be no missing her, she shouted, "Enough!"

Khan tilted his head, standing up from the chair. They were alone now, and the ship had alread fired off several blasts. But she and she alone had his attention now. "Do you intend to kill me?"

"You said we would find a way to do this without killing them. Here it is. I'm just making you remember." Eve said, but her hands had begun to shake again. "These people don't deserve to die."

"They attacked me."

"You attacked them first."

"We attacked them first. After our display, do you serusly think they'll believe you were my captive?"

"Then we go now. We take you're crew and we go."

"They're the only ones who can be used to prove your guilt. With them gone, you can return to Earth, to your family."

"It's not worth destroying thousands of lives for!"

"Just one, then."

She grimaced, the phaser dipping downard. He was too fast, snatching it from her hand and twisting it sharply. He was about to grab her when the entire ship rumbled like an earth quake. Khan let out the most pained scream she had ever heard.

And then she understood. It was the torpedoes.


	20. Chapter 18: The Unforgivable Sin

**Home at last, with internet and time and more than five minute showers. Hey guys, long freaking time no see! So, after the long journey I'm home in time to deliver the last chapters of this story to those of you patient enough to put up with my disgustingly long absence! Your all amazing, and I hope you enjoy the latest installment! It took me a long time to get it right, so I hope it's all it should be.**

_23 17 46 11._ _2258, 112._

His eyes lifted to her own, brows raising in a question telegraphed across the room of baffled researchers.

"Is this all?"

Eve tried to focus on her underling, babbling on about the impossibilities John was preforming.

"- running six hours," the scientist squeaked. "His body sweats to let out the toxins but he never tires! No unsteady breathing, no slowing in pace... He's our own Superman and we haven't got any Kryptonite!"

"He has a weakness." She said shortly, giving the man an look which clearly showed how onerous she found him to be. "Nature always provides a weakness, otherwise that species would inherit the Earth. Or Space."

She wanted to be understanding, to simply enjoy the shock of those who had never had the chance to marvel at what John was capable of. But the bitter taste of satisfaction at finally being proven right was given so grudgingly by her colleges it was difficult to enjoy.

Surely the machines had malfunctioned, a private practice doctor could misread the information that he was suffering major organ failure and recovering. They all thought she was inept. None of them would ever apologise to her for being wrong.

A part of her was sad, to have to include all these self-entitled knuckle dragging mouth breathers into the inner sanctum of possibilities John represented.

"He has a fifth nitrogenous base in his DNA doctor." The man tried to catch her eye as she and John stared at each other in mutual agreement of the stupidity of the company. He was bear chested, plastered with disks which wirelessly transmitted information to the computers as well as strapped into a complex clear breathing mask with several tubes coming out of it leading to different parts of the machine above his rotating track in the central prison chamber.

Her lab coat was rolled up and wrinkled as always, her clothes the only unique colour in a sea of blue uniforms.

"I don't think nature created him." The man before her hissed.

"We all have to answer to nature," Eve sighed, unfolding her arms and returning her gaze to her assistant. "He may have been genetically altered, but we can't synthesis a whole person. At some point we have to admit our own short comings and enlist what the world already possesses, and there by?"

"Allow in a weakness." The man said like an over-encumbered school boy. "So we keep running him?"

"No." Eve took the man's data pad, typed in her override, and locked him out of their shared information pool before dropping it onto the table beside them. "We tell Marcus he has no evident flaws, and return to work with more point than giving the Admiral something to lord over John Harrison's head."

She moved out of the observation room, down the metal stairs, and onto the testing floor. A few covert eyes went her way as she mounted the steps up to the pentagonal shaped central chamber, ignoring the outcry from the scientists running scans on the display panels attached to each of the chamber's walls. She unlocked the door with her senior staff identity chit and entered John's latest solitary cage.

The door shut immediately behind her, but she walked quickly up to the controls regulating the machine John ran on and shut it down. He slowed with the track, turning to look at her as he climbed off. "Doctor Swan, you've been absent a long time. I hope something useful came of this exercise."

"Well, you were getting a bit flabby sitting about all day. And I think you've managed to terrify and emotionally scar my staff more than you have already." She offered, walking over and unlatching his mask. She had to go on tiptoe to remove it as he refused to bow his head, moving it off and letting it dangle behind.

"Not you, though." He observed in return as she moved around him detaching the small silver disks. "All my other doctors come with an armed escort. Look at your colleagues; they're positively askance at your recklessness."

"You're not going to hurt me, John." Evelette laughed. "Even if you tried to use me as a hostage, Marcus only sees me as useful in that I'm the only one you seem inclined to behave yourself around. He'd happily see me dispatched to keep you here; a simple matter of which of us is a more important asset."

"I could take that card from you." He nodded to the chit attached to her coat by a retracting cord.

"Only opens doors from the outside." She said apologetically, walking over and sliding it through the lock to prove it, the light on the latch remaining unhelpful red. "I'm afraid I'm only slightly freer than you. Marcus is careful of where his independent mind gets to."

"Is that an attempted to comfort me?"

She frowned, disks collected in her hands clattering as she shifted them about. She walked over and deposited them on the control desk, looking over his face. He was always less somber after their talks. She didn't like that their banter served Marcus' agenda. "No John, you shouldn't ever let yourself get comfortable with me. I won't with you. The moment either of us slips with that, one of us is going to disappear. And I very much still need you."

"For your niece?"

That it was a question gave her pause. She was aware the entire medical science team was listening. How many understood what the question really was?

"Of course." She said, then turned and strode back to the door, waiting to be let out.

_The USS Vengeance 2259, 57._

The rumble knocked her sideways, and Khan was too absorbed in his utter calamity that he made no attempt to catch her as she feel back against a control board. She slid to the floor, watching as he pulled at his hair, wild animalistic insanity transforming him into something she'd never seen before.

It was the only moment she was ever truly afraid of what he might do to her.

The alarms of the ship were going off all around them, the ship warbling as space sucked the oxygen out of the lower levels along with the shattered remains of seventy two incinerated souls.

Marcus was dead. But his vengeance was complete.

The screen flickered to life, but the image was garbled and failing. She could see fractions of Kirk's face – some yellow of his uniform, one of those burning blue eyes. Whatever he first said was impossible to make out, but somewhere she heard her name. Evelette stared at the screen numbly.

Khan was right, as he had ever been.

They should have murdered the crew of the Enterprise when the opportunity was theirs for the taking.

"Doctor – no need – sacrificed – Marcus."

She could feel the seething maelstrom of Khan's fury turning towards her. Everything perched upon a glistening edge. Eve's eyes lowered to the controls in front of her, the display flashing red over her face bathing her in the sinister glow and then plunging her into darkness.

She knew hardly anything about the ship. She'd had the barest of training in the basics of how a star ship operated. But finding the already armed final strike weapon on the Vengeance was strangely simple.

Only a moment ago, she'd have done anything to stop Marcus from ordering the button pressed.

She tapped it, and from somewhere deep beneath them a massive purple ball of energy expelled. As it collided with debris it didn't slow – much, much worse, it expanded. Anything it touched it began shooting off of in a chain of violet lighting, spreading in a cloud toward the Enterprise. The light engulfing the ship opposite was the last thing Eve saw before the Vengeance plunged, finally giving way to the pull of Earth which had been dragging both ships in.

She hit something hard, but nothing shattered as she was slammed against a wall. Khan managed to get into the command chair, pressing a series of displays rapidly as the atmosphere of Earth began superheating the metal all around them. She saw him in flashes as the ship fought for power, and then a terrible realization hit.

He was struggling. _Khan_ was struggling, and she'd never once seen him do so.

Who would have thought, the assistant had been right. Khan had no flaws.

But she had been right to – nature gave him a weakness.

And that was her.

They were all each other had left. He knew they were going to crash, and they both knew he was going to survive it. But Eve wasn't genetically superior. She wasn't remotely lucky. The crashing of a star ship from space would be the greatest horror Earth had seen in a very long time – millions of tons of steel and electronics, not to mentioned a radioactive core, the ship's crash would be a violence to streak through a generation.

Streak.

Blood.

_Blood!_

She looked about frantically, crawling across the floor gripping the walls for support as the deck swayed dangerously. She heard Khan call out to her, telling her to get into one of the chairs to strap in, but didn't dare. Once they hit, the case would be gone forever.

Managing to get to the bloody floor where Carol had nursed her, she looked around frantically. With all the rocking it had disappeared, and so dropping to the floor she began crawling, scrabbling at the dark corners.

And then she saw it.

Khan was screaming for her now, but it seemed strangely distant compared to the alarms of the machine, and the trap of time which seemed to have gone astray, the world moving all too slow as she saw the case dangling on the edge of the open door, ready to take the plunge into the halls of the toppling giant.

She fought the tug and sway as the artificial gravity attempt to keep them steady, gasping and lunging as at the last moment it thrust her forward at violent speed to slam into the wall, fingers closing around the case as she spiraled forward. She screamed as any sort of ground came out from under her, about to drop into the darkness before an hand closer around her arm, jerking her to a stop.

Khan dragged her up, gripping her against him as they smashed through Earth's atmosphere and went tunneling into the clouds. Mist was leaking through the cracked front window, the Vengeance screaming bloody murder as they came closer and closer to impact.

"Make them suffer." Eve gripped his shirt, her lips by his ear. "If I don't survive, see that they pay for this. And then find somewhere safe and warm. You deserve to be… happy."

His fingers tightened, breath halting. She shut her eyes, and the world exploded around them in dust, and fire, and devastation.


	21. Chapter 19: Escape from Ground Zero

***Cough* Sooo, yes, I cliff hangered you all. But I'm here to post a new chapter, so at least the pain isn't overlong! Just a note, the poem lines at the end aren't my own, it's from the poem "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Sara Teasdale - it's a lovely poem, I recommend it for sure. Short but powerful. Anyhow - enough jabber! Enjoy!**

Evelette stayed very still, a high pitched shriek reverberating around her skull. Her body was numb, but at the same time everything tingled. The weight on her was almost unbearable, and she knew she needed to move it and get a proper breath, but was too afraid to attempt the motion.

In the end, it was the groan in her ear that made her flinch, and with a gasp she remembered all at once what the weight was.

"Khan!" She cried, struggling to free her arms from underneath him. "Khan, can you hear me?"

He made a noise of assent, but didn't move. He breathed in sharply as she tried to move out from under him, so she stopped immediately. "What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing." His voice was strained. He shifted his arms, moving them on either side of her in order to lift his chest off her. He looked down at her, his hair fallen to cover part of his face. Even now, he was alert, trying to fight down the paint that was clearly a potent distraction for him as well as her. She could feel her own warm blood sticking to her brow, her ears ringing from the impact. The case was open beside her in the cradle the curved wall provided them, one needle still secured in its place and another empty and discarded nearby.

"Are you alright?" His voice drew her out of her reflection.

"The needle…" She murmured tiredly, letting her eyes close for a moment. "How long have we been here?"

"Too long – do you feel any pain in your side?"

"My side?"

"You had shard of glass from one of the displays puncturing your lungs."

Her eyes flew open, hands going instinctively to her side. Her fingers felt strangely cool against the newly formed skin made accessible by a massive tare in her dress.

"Eve?"

"Yes." She promised. "Yes I'm fine."

He sighed, gaze lingering over her face a little longer before he moved off her, gripping the wall carefully. They were very close to where the front window of the bridge had been – the glass now gone, showing a plunge into a smoke filled world, small dots scattering about wildly like insects from a cracked open hive. Eve crawled as close to the edge as she dared, trying to comprehend what they'd done.

"You're covered in blood." Khan leaned forward, pushing her hair back to examine her brow. His blood had closed the open wound, but evidence of its existence was plain. She moved her head down, pulling up the neck of her dress and attempting to mop up the mess. Neither of them spoke of what hung in the air, the screams from down below a chilling accompaniment of the ones Khan's crew were unable to make.

When she looked over at him, she could see the fury in his eyes. To have had them, and lost them again…

"The man who did it, Spock…"

"Will pay with all her holds dear." Khan said, his voice vacant but too hard to be casual.

Nodding, Eve pushed at her face, realizing that at some point the crash had cracked her fingers back into place as well as her nose. She flexed her fingers, staring at the red stained into her skin. She breathed in sharply as Khan took her hand, and she watched as he stared at the connection, turning her hand over in his, splaying her fingers and tracing the pattern of her palm.

"I'm sorry." She breathed.

"The Enterprise was damaged catastrophically in the final attack. Your final attack. We're all that's left, if that crew is lucky. We need time for you to mend, as well as to gather information."

Eve took a deep breath. Time sounded… good. "It's not safe here. If they've survived to, Spock will want to come after us."

The prompt was unnecessary, Khan already drawing to his feet and examining the grim leap ahead. He offered a hand, helping her to her feet after she collected the last vial and tucked it back into her boot. "You've used two already." He noted.

"I hate being this fragile." Eve muttered, the familiar sense of fear returning as she considered the task before them. "We have to change that."

"My thought as well. But for the present," he picked her up, moving to the precipice. Sparks skipped across the floor and dropped ahead of them, the whole city seeming to be nothing but a display. It would have been breath taking if not for the unmistakable chaos and despair. "When we reach the bottom, stay close."

"If you drop me…" Eve laughed nervously, holding tight.

"I won't."

For both of them, he leapt. They fell, through hissing steam and shrieking sirens. They landed on part of the ship, Eve landing in Khan and the pair sliding uncontrollably down the sheer edge of the body of the Vengeance.

They hit the ground to hard, too fast. She was flung for his arms, catapulted and skipping almost as far as they'd jumped before she finally rolled to halt on shattered marble. He was up in an instant, dragging her to her feet and guiding her through oily black smoke and into the crowd of civilians trying to fight their way past the Starfleet officers forced by duty to make their way towards the crash. No one paid them any mind, Khan holding Eve only made them look like victims of the crash. They burst out onto the street and he dropped her to her feet, stopping to steal a long coat off the back of an abandoned café chair and tossing her a scarf and female styled leather jacket.

People everywhere were screaming for loved ones or from pain, the shrapnel from the ship and the building demolished by it having spread over a massive radius. On impact, thousands of tons of superheated metal had rained over the area leaving sizzling piles of molten steel everywhere. People with burns were all around them, screaming. Sirens were louder still, adding to the madness as Eve put the coat on with unfeeling hands, staring at a woman holding her child and rocking back and forth, kissing the little girl as she sniffled weakly.

Khan's hand closed around hers like a vice, and Eve cried out in surprise and pain. He forced her forward running at a hellish speed, and it took everything for her to try and keep up. She dared a glance over her shoulder, and felt the drowning suffication of swelling rage as she saw Spock hot on their heels. Khan dropped her hand, rushing ahead in time to smash through the glass of an office door, not even slowed by it as he tore through the lobby, Eve dancing over the glistening shards and jumping over the railing of the stairs he was zigzagging down, landing hard beside him and gasping in pain as her side flared up, the progress of healing clearly diminishing.

Khan shoved a woman out of the way, he and Eve running full boar onto the highway amidst horns of angry drivers and screeches of air breaks as the vehicles swirled and swerved around them.

"Give me your hand!" He shouted over his shoulder, Eve starting to fall behind as her lungs burned with like she had inhaled fire, the need to rid her body of building carbon dioxide and replenish oxygen growing to levels her body couldn't supply. She thrust out her hand, and by pausing only an instant he forced her to collide with him, sweeping her up onto his back and continuing on with hardly a hitch in his stride. She flailed wildly, trying to get hold and keep from tangling her legs in his as she watched him running for a railing. A dumpster speeder was lifting up past it, and Eve didn't have time to be afraid before Khan leapt off the rail, the two of them flying up to slam onto the top of the machine. Eve rolled off his back and landed on her back, Khan crouched and watching their pursuer.

It swayed noticeably to the right, and Khan got to his feet as Eve gripped the plating of the speeder desperately, the machine taking off at full tilt. Khan strode over to the right as a hand appeared, lifted his boot, and stomped down. A flash of silver fell into the pit that stretched under them hundreds of meters deep, and Khan leaned down to seize the neck of Spock's uniform and lift him up, throwing him face first into one of the two tails of the dumpster.

Spock landed hard, staggering back, but as Khan strode over and wound up, he was getting himself steady. Khan swung and Spock ducked, delivering a swing of his own with slammed against the side of Khan's face. He of course was unmoved, swinging back with the back of his fist which Spock used an arm to parry, Khan swinging up a leg to continue the motion and throwing Spock back to the very edge. He hurried forward, ducking under another punch and snaking up, snaring his fingers onto Khan's shoulder.

He let out a scream the likes of which Eve had never heard from Khan. He dropped to his knees, agonized and yet withstanding the Vulcan's brutal attack better than any human should have been able.

Eve pushed to her feet, spurred by Khan's pain. She ran and tackled Spock, both of them flying into the other tail of the speeder, but only the edge. They spun, and Eve screamed as for a moment her body hung out in the air. Spock reached out, trying to get hold of the hand that wasn't clamped around the wing.

The speeder dove to the left, and Eve was thrown forward into him, the pair landing back onto the machine securely. He made to touch her, and Eve hit him as hard as she could.

Spock cried out, falling back into Khan's legs as Khan stood, holding his shoulder protectively. He booted Spock in the back of the head and the Vulcan slammed forward, Eve moving out of the way as he crawled forward, another kick from Khan landing him on his back. Khan leaned down, gripping both sides of Spock's head as he forced the man to his feet. Spock roared in pain, reaching forward and placing his three fingers on the side of Khan's face.

For a moment they were locked, both suffering almost to the point they could not take. And then Khan drove Spock's face down into his knee, and threw the Vulcan aside.

"Eve!" He shouted, and she hurried to him as Spock groaned on the metal platform. She joined Khan's side, glancing over her shoulder. Her eyes met Spock's for a moment, and the confusion in them was disarming. Then she was propelled forward, flying through the air to land on a second speeder. She stood for a moment, Khan reaching out to steady her, and then Spock landed in front of them, rolling backwards as he landed unevenly. He dropped off the end, his hand barely visible.

Khan growled as he watched Spock pulling himself up, storming over to boot Spock's face and he managed to get back aboard. Khan knelt into Spock's chest, lifting and punching his face over several times before he took hold of Spock again, his hands pressing into the sides of the Vulcan's skull. Spock's eyes went wide, and Eve clung to the tail watching as the two men stared at each other.

The word stop hung on her lips, thinking of Carol screaming for Marcus. But this was justice – maybe not her kind of justice, blood for blood, but for Khan this was how it had to end. Then, before Evelette's eyes, Uhura appeared in a white glow. The woman turned, lifted her phaser, and shot.

Khan cried out, moving off Spock as she loosed several stun shots into him.

"Khan!" Eve screamed, trying to get to him but hit across the face by the butt of the gun as Uhura turned on her. She saw Spock move on top of Khan, the sudden reversal renewing the rage she saw no reason for him to have. Uhura moved between her and the men, silver gun trained on Eve. "Step back!"

"You don't deserve to be saved!" Eve shouted. "I tried to help you and you destroyed everything! He's killing him!"

"Doctor, don't!" Uhura warned. That was when she looked behind, seeing Spock slamming some sort of piece of the machine against the motionless form of Khan over and over. "Spock stop!" She screamed. "He's our only hope to save Kirk!"

Evelette rushed forward, grabbing Uhura's phaser and turned, yanking the woman's arm round and aiming it at Spock, firing. The Vulcan grunted, lurching back out of the way of the blue streak. Eve smashed her elbow into Uhura's, slipping the gun free and spinning round to seize hold of the woman, pulling her arm around her throat and pressing the phaser to her head, quickly switching it off stun.

Spock froze, watching Eve as Uhura squirmed. "Release her."

"Why do you need him to save Kirk?" Eve demanded, ignoring Spock and looking to her prisoner.

"Kirk's dead. He died saving all of us after Khan fired that weapon on the Enterprise. Khan's blood can bring him back." Uhura shouted over the wind. "We need him!"

"Mr. Spock, step away from him or she's dead." Eve moved her arm from around Uhura, stepping back but continuing to keep the pistol on her.

Spock watched Uhura closely, getting to his feet and taking a few steps back. "Harrison comes with us."

"His name is Khan. And no, he's not." Eve bent down slightly, drawing the case from her boot. She waved it, then moved forward to offer it to Uhura. The darker skinned woman looked at it critically, but took it slowly. "That contains a vial of Khan's blood. Enough to bring Kirk back. You take it, and we go."

"Khan has killed-"

"So have you."

Spock's eyes narrowed, then widened. "Khan's crew -"

"Don't." Eve's voice shook, finger tightening on the trigger. "You don't get to speak about them."

She lowered the gun, moving forward and picking Khan up. He moved sluggishly, blood oozing down from his temple. She moved his arm around her shoulders and the speeder slowed, moving in towards its next pick up site. She raised the phaser again and Spock made to move, and he tilted his head slightly.

"Doctor Swan," he said coolly. "The man you attempt to save has committed now several act of terrorism against Starfleet. I cannot allow him to escape."

"Then Kirk dies, and she dies," Eve pointed the phaser directly at Uhura, still locking eyes with Spock. "There's been enough of that today. Go save your Captain – let the wounds bleed a while. Then try and come after us. Khan doesn't want all of Starfleet… he wants you."

She stepped back as the machine locked into the wall, stumbling into a small garden terrace. Spock took a step forward but Uhura stopped him. "Let them go. Let them go."

There was a moment when Eve thought her might lung at her, but he didn't.

At the last moment, Eve gasped. "Uhura!"

The other woman looked to her, clutching the person she loved as Eve did with Khan.

"The base where that ship was made – the co-ordinates Kirk was given. There's a biological weapon that needs to be destroyed."

The speeder moved back from the wall, and just before it whisked them away gold light began to spin around the pair. Uhura nodded to Eve grimly, and Eve lowered her phaser as they were dragged off once again.

Khan swayed as Eve moved them away quickly, keeping a tight hold as he came in and out of consciousness. She kept going until they were lost again amidst the insanity, and then she carried him over into an alley, lowering herself and him at a deliberate, gradual pace.

She let his head fall into her lap, leaning against the freezing concrete of the wall behind her and listening again to the cacophony of machines and people in frenzy. No one would notice them, not now. She stroked his hair back off his face, leaning down to kiss his brow. Somewhere overhead thunder cracked, storm moving in as if the world itself wished to give the city some reprieve from the fire spreading off the Vengeance.

Evelette took a deep breath, allowing herself finally to believe that they were for the moment safe. With a wry smile, she took one of the dangling strips of dress on her side and yanked it off, cleaning away the blood from Khan's face as she murmured to herself, "Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree; if mankind perished utterly. And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, would scarcely know that we were gone."


End file.
